The Right Thing to Do

by Rev. Mary Harmison, Academic Director for SEU Ohio

Recently two Southeastern University softball players at the main campus in Lakeland, Florida made national sports news. During the game, a player from the opposing team struck a homerun and then injured her leg, falling as she rounded first base. Per game rules, her teammates could not help her reach home base to score the point. So instead, two Southeastern students picked her up and carried her to home base, pausing so she could tag each base along the way. This allowed the injured player and the opposing team to score a point that put Southeastern behind in the game. Talk about going the extra mile!

When asked why they did it, the Southeastern softball players replied that it was simply the right thing to do, and that they hoped someone else would do this for them, too, if their teammate was injured. This simple gesture harkens back to the Golden Rule found in Scripture: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets" (Matthew 7:12). Jesus's simple instructions to love our neighbor as we would love ourselves has powerful outcomes, especially when we do so to our own hurt and when it is inconvenient. Are we helping others learn this powerful truth by modeling it when opportunities arise? In an era when sportsmanship and civility seem to be on the decline, we need the light of love to shine all the more brightly to turn the culture in a better direction. Kudos to these SEU students for living out their faith in a tangible way.

To read more on this story and what it can teach us about sportsmanship, see Southeastern University President Kent Ingle's recent blog.