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If you’ve read these blogs, you know I went to Clemson and was very excited about their winning the National Championship in football. My doctorate is from Auburn so I was following their basketball team as it went to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four for the first time in school history. Unfortunately, they lost to Virginia in the last seconds, helped, apparently, by a double-dribble what wasn’t called.

Just as Clemson Head Coach Dabo Swinney gave glory to God when Clemson won, Auburn Head Basketball Coach Bruce Pearl gave glory to God when Auburn lost. When asked about the missed double-dribble call, this is what he said:

The biggest point I want to make is…there is human error involved in the game. Kids make mistakes, coaches make mistakes. Yes, officials will make mistakes. That’s part of the game. Get over it. Sometimes they’re going to go your way, sometimes they’re not going to go your way. Are we going to give God less glory because we lost, and it’s only when we win we give him the glory? Stop. Grow up, this is part of the game. These kids taught us, I think, in many, many ways how to handle defeat. And that’s a difficult thing to do for these young kids. And I’m proud of them.

We don’t always win. Things don’t always go our way. There are disappointments in life. Then what? Coach Pearl has given us valuable insight. Things didn’t always go well for the Apostles Paul or Peter:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12.9, 10, ESV)

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4.12, 13, NIV)

This [Jesus] said to show by what kind of death [Peter] was to glorify God. And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” (John 21.19, ESV)