Loyalty

My wife, Sharon, and my mentor, Fred Bishop, are among the most fiercely loyal people I’ve ever met. They refuse to quit on the people to whom they’re committed under any circumstances. They will consistently support their friends, teammates and colleagues when they fail, when they are under intense criticism and even when they display poor character. Such loyalty is an admirable trait in a spouse, a mentor and a friend and is an indispensable characteristic in a sport chaplain or sport mentor.

According to dictionary.com, to be loyal is “to be faithful to one's oath, commitments, or obligations: to be loyal to a vow.” We certainly expect faithfulness to one’s wedding vows and look for it among teammates, but it is often a rare commodity among the people of sport. The sports media are full of stories of competitive failure, moral failure and character issues among coaches and competitors. Coaches who are fired for too few wins, players who are suspended for doping, team officials who are found to have ties to gambling interests, competitors who speak foolishly during interviews and thus incur the wrath of their club or league and other instances put us who serve them in difficult situations and leave us with hard questions to be asked.

Hard questions which test our loyalty:
· How shall I relate to the coach who was just fired for lack of success?
· What should I say to our coach who was exposed in a sex scandal?
· Our best player was just suspended for a violation of team rules (failed drug test), how shall I approach him?
· What is my responsibility toward the coach who was just “outed” and identified as a lesbian?
· After months of bitter conflict, our head coach resigned. Should I seek him out or just let him go?
· One of our committed Christian players was just benched for poor performance, how shall I encourage her?

These and similar situations often stretch to the limit the loyalty of our hearts. We often find the faithfulness we want to give to our friends and teammates in conflict with our drive for success, our taste for popularity and our desire for status. Let’s think this matter through and let the Spirit of Christ guide our hearts to making wise decisions.

We must display loyalty to those we serve in sports:
· On their way down as well as on their way up.
· When they lose as well as when they win.
· When they endure criticism by the media as well as when they’re the media darlings.
· When they are dead wrong, foolish and out of line as well as when they are wise and totally in the right.

Let’s be the ones in sport who are loyal, faithful and consistent. There are plenty of people who will be capricious, politically expedient and adrift on the fickle seas of public opinion.