Handling Life after Defeat

It’s been no secret that I am a Kansas City Chiefs fan from my stint as a pastor in the KC area. Along with the Chiefs fans back at my old church we had a wild ride this year. Patrick Mahomes had a wild ride, too: awarded huge contracts, commentators touting him as the future GOAT (greatest of all time), making much of his incredible abilities, and his face showing up in State Farm ads, etc. But yesterday’s Super Bowl experience was not a good day for him. He spent much of his time under multiple Buccaneer players. He was beaten and beat up. What do we learn from this?

Don’t pin your happiness on your sports team — In Kansas City there will be many going to work depressed today. However, Tampa Bay fans are on cloud nine and have visions of dynasty dancing in their heads. Earthly victories are often fleeting. God warns us not to put our hopes in such things nor to give them undue focus — So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:18

You can’t be great on your own — Mahomes defeat was really the Chiefs defeat as a result of the loss to injuries of two of his offensive linemen. Quarterbacks are not miracle workers by themselves, regardless of great talent. This is true for us as well. Our own personal success in life is usually due to the good work of people around us. Humble gratitude is needed toward those who make you look good. This attitude is one of the things that Make Mahomes and Brady great teammates and not just great athletes.

It’s Only a Game When your team loses, take a breath. It’s not the end of the world. There are many, many more important things in life. When your team wins, take it with grace. It was great to see the different athletes and coaches still congratulating one another and encouraging each other after the game. I know that former Bears coach Mike Ditka hated this practice. He thought it would make the players soft. But I saw heated intensity in the middle of the game, then encouragement afterwards.

Take Time to Laugh This was mentioned last week, but it bears repeating. I’ve known people to get terribly angry and feel betrayed by such losses. Now we may need to give people a little bit of space to work through their feelings, after all we are only human. But it is helpful to put things in perspective and humor can often do that for us.

Some final thoughts:
Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Except bears.
Bears will kill you.

Mom as Mom:
“You eat what I make.”
Mom as Grandma:
“Would you like your sandwich cut up into hearts or stars?”

Moses was the first person with a tablet for downloading data from the Cloud.

Have a great week! Christopher