Don’t wheel and deal

A measure of cheating and little white lies are common in all sports.

There are people who feign injuries, or football players who pretend they have been fouled and see if the referee believes them, a surreptitious kick at someone in the opposing team, insults to the person who is marking you or provocative gestures to break the concentration of your opponent...

At the end of the 10,000 meter event in Barcelona 1992, a very unsporting image was presented when during the last lap of the stadium, BUTAYEB (who was one lap down), blatantly helped his compatriot SKAH (who went on to win the race) by running encouragingly beside him and leaving behind the Kenyan CHELIMO.

This was a manoeuvre prohibited in the rules, which state that a runner who is lapped should not continue in the same lap as his rivals.

The public booed during the medal ceremony, while CHELIMO, the true winner, consoled himself by listening to worship songs.

I expect you have heard the phrase 'the end justifies the means' on more than one occasion. It is a way of saying that everything is valid as a way of getting where you want to be.

This philosophy has too many problems attached to it, because in the same way that you override others to reach your objectives, they will walk over you in pursuit of theirs

It is the law of the jungle in which the most savage wins.

If sports people are supposed to play clean, how much more is it expected of someone who calls himself a Christian!

The words 'spite' and 'cheat' should not be in our dictionary. To mislead is to say or suggest something that is not the truth, to talk about someone with lying lips.

We may be experts at this kind of thing, using misleading expressions like, 'I saw them...' or, 'They said to me...' or, 'Do you know what happened to me...?' The evidence that points to our deviousness is at times too abundant.

Deceit can also be when we keep quiet about what we know to be true in a decision that affects others, or when someone is accused, hurt or insulted, and we know that it is unjust.

We keep quiet perhaps because we think we can gain something from the situation...or we are afraid of the consequences of getting involved. Our cowardice deserves punishment.

Deceit is telling little white lies. "Everyone does it!" Well, maybe so, but it is certain that God abhors lies, of whatever type.

How many times do we bend the truth, including when we talk to God? Are we specialists in pretense, cheating, and lying to achieve our plans?

God calls you to be a different kind of person: without being deceitful and cheating, without false words or pretense.