Human Defeats Don't Have To Taste Like Defeat

​Irish fans, how are you feeling after the tough loss?

I'll answer for this Irish fan.

Blessed.

On a day when I needed reminding that my joy, my contentment, my blessings do not come from man, or the systems and games of man, this Irish team showed up for me in a beautiful way.

But they lost, one might say....

In the post-game interview, Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard was asked about the loss. He answered first by thanking Jesus, and then pointed to the Godliness and character of his opponents.

Then he answered the football question.

Yesterday, I spent time reading from the book of Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord (Jeremiah 17: 5-6):

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

That sounds harsh, but in my life it is truth. The more I trust what man can do for me the more my eyes turn away from what God is always doing for me. The more I let the victories or defeats of man taste like victories or defeats in me, the easier it is for me to forget that in God there is no such thing as defeat.

Defeat is something created by man. Victory is the very nature of God.

Was I disappointed with the loss? Tremendously. But certainly not nearly as disappointed as Riley Leonard and his teammates who poured their hearts and souls into what turned out to be an incredibly exciting season for us Irish fans.

But what Riley Leonard modeled during his press conference is that disappointment doesn't have to equal defeated. A loss in a human game doesn't have to feel like a curse. Because blessing and curse is not determined by human outcomes but by whom we turn to before, during and after those outcomes.

Riley Leonard lost a human game. But Riley Leonard is experiencing victory today because of where he places his trust before and after the game.

The man in me would have loved to have seen the Irish break their 35 year national championship drought. The Christian in me knows there are far worse droughts to endure. I know it because I have lived those droughts.

Jeremiah goes on to say:

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green.

Thank you Riley Leonard, and to all of your teammates, for reminding us in your moment of deep disappointment that you are not defeated, and that if our trust is in the right place, even in defeat today our shamrocks are all still a beautiful shade of green.