I think you’ll be able to relate with my attitude growing up: I wanted to win the medals and brackets. I wouldn’t say I was obsessed but it definitely was a motivation
At most wrestling tournaments I competed in, only first place got the award. Second place went home with nothing to show for it. So I always wanted to win. Every weekend I know what I was competing for: the hardware.
Then there was the bracket. If you won the tournament you would walk out with a cardstock bracket with the name of the school that hosted the tournament and all the kids’ names in your weight bracket would be hand written in. Sometimes I would study those brackets. Who did I beat and by how much? If I wrestled them again, what would I do to score more points? I could trace my name to the first place spot and I knew a medal or trophy went with that bracket.
Ok, maybe I was a little obsessed, but those trophies and brackets were how I measured myself. They were proof that I was improving, that the hard work was paying off, and that I was growing as an athlete.
Medals and brackets were my sport’s fruit.
What’s The Fruit In Your Sport?
Every sport produced fruit, and it’s easy to see and easy to measure:
Wins and losses
Trophies, medals, and brackets
Stats, rankings, and highlight reels
Scholarships, invites, NIL deals, and followers
A platform and a microphone.
Think about what our sports culture celebrates:
Who gets interviewed at the end of the game? The winner.
Who gets to speak at the press conference? The best performer.
How often do we hear from those on the bench? Almost never.
When was the last time a 1-9 team or its coach got the microphone?
None of that fruit is bad. Wins and trophies are good gifts, and sports can build real character like discipline, toughness, teamwork, and perseverance. But there’s a subtle mindset that creeps into Christian athletes, coaches, and parents: “To be used by God, I have to be successful.” For a long time I carried that same measuring stick from the bracket into my faith. Without realizing it, I started measuring my life, and even my walk with God, by sport’s fruit.
A Better Fruit
Fruit is evidence of what’s alive underneath. (Luke 6:44) The apostle Paul wrote, as we grow in Christ, the Holy Spirit grows something more in us: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23)
Right before the fruit of the Spirit verses, Paul lists the “works of the flesh.” These sound like they came straight out of a dysfunctional locker room: “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy” (Galatians 5:20–21). There couldn’t be a starker contrast between flesh and Spirit.
Left unchecked, sports culture doesn’t just measure the wrong fruit, it can grow the wrong fruit in us. The fruit of sport is about what you achieve. The fruit of the Spirit is about who you are becoming. Here’s what that looks like side by side.
Love
Sports says: Love the people who help you win; the contributors. Your opponent is the enemy.
The Spirit grows: Love for teammates, opponents, referees, the game, and God. Love cheers loudest when the backup finally gets in and knows the names and stories of all your teammates.
Joy
Sports says: You’re happy when you win and miserable when you lose.
The Spirit grows: Joy the scoreboard can’t touch. It’s gratitude for simply getting to play. It’s having fun and smiling while working hard and sweating.
Peace
Sports says: Your identity is on the line every time you compete.
The Spirit grows: Peace that keeps you steady at the free-throw line, in overtime, or on the sideline of a close game, because your identity is secure in Christ.
Patience
Sports says: I want results now.
The Spirit grows: Patience to wait your turn, even if it takes three years, to teach the fundamentals for the tenth time, and to let your kid develop at their own pace.
Kindness
Sports says: Look out for yourself and ignore anyone who can’t help you win.
The Spirit grows: Kindness that helps an opponent up off the mat, encourages the struggling freshman, and thanks the trainers, officials, and the bus driver.
Goodness
Sports says: Win at all costs. It’s only cheating if you get caught.
The Spirit grows: Goodness that does what’s right when no one is watching, like telling the official the ball went off you or finishing every rep when the coach isn’t looking. It’s seeing and pointing out the good in others.
Faithfulness
Sports says: Your effort depends on your playing time, your mood, or the scoreboard.
The Spirit grows: Faithfulness that works as hard on Monday as before the loss, is the same teammate whether you start or sit, and is the coach who shows up decade after decade because it’s a calling.
Gentleness
Sports says: Dominate, intimidate, and humiliate.
The Spirit grows: Gentleness, which is strength under control. It shakes the hand of the opponent who just beat you and corrects a teammate without tearing them down.
Self-control
Sports says: Let your emotions fly. Outbursts just show how much you care.
The Spirit grows: Self-control that doesn’t retaliate after a cheap shot, guards your words with or without a microphone, and skips the critique on the car ride home.
Try This: After your next game, practice, or season, look at the chart above and ask, “Which column did I live in today?” Be honest about the fruit that showed up and the fruit that was missing.
Pursue the Unperishable
Paul knew how to relate to athletes: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:25).
Do you see another difference between the fruit of sport and the fruit of the Spirit? Sport’s fruit is perishable. Records will get broken and someone will do a better highlight next week. The fruit of the Spirit lasts forever, because it’s the character of Jesus growing in you.
Here is some good news: You can’t produce that fruit by trying harder. This fruit grows from staying connected to the vine who is Jesus. (John 15:5). This will take discipline from us but the fruit that is produced is through God working in us.
In the parable of the talents, the servant given five talents and the servant given two hear the exact same words: “Well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 25:21, 23). The master didn’t grade them on the size of their trophy shelf. He commended their faithfulness.
The kid who never wins a bracket, the coach of the 1–9 team, and the parent driving to every practice can all hear those same words.
So chase the wins and enjoy the trophies. But don’t trade the fruit of the Spirit for the fruit of sport.
Remember those trophies and brackets I was so obsessed with as a kid? You know where they are now?
In a box.
In the attic.
Not because they don’t matter, but because they aren’t a fruit that lasts.
