When you look beneath the surface of Coach Wooden’s winning resume, you can see he was not always a winner. He has known tremendous defeat.
– Clint DeckerCollege basketball fans live for March Madness. It is about this time a particular name is remembered each year – Coach John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA Bruins. (Image by optimism.ucla.edu)
He is remembered for the coaching success at UCLA, that most sports historians say will never be matched or likely even rivaled. It is an untouchable set of records. The ones most well known are the ten NCAA national championships in 12 years, 88 consecutive wins over four seasons and 19 conference championships.
Many fans of Coach Wooden might say he has been a winner throughout his entire life. As a player, he won championships in high school and college. As a coach, he had an 81% winning percentage covering 40 years of coaching along with the UCLA championships.
However, when you look beneath the surface of Coach Wooden’s resume, you can see he was not always a winner. He has known tremendous defeat. During the state title game of 1927 for Martinsville (Indiana) High School, he missed a key shot and lost the championship. Wooden says, “Losing that game was the most disappointing thing that happened to me as a player.” He started coaching a few years later in 1932 at Dayton (Kentucky) High School. His first season was six wins and 11 losses. It took him 28 years of coaching through the high school and college ranks before he won his first title. Then at UCLA in 1964, he captured his first of many NCAA national championships.
Like Coach Wooden, before we stand on the summit of victory, we often walk through the dark and lonely valleys of defeat. We see this as a pattern in the lives of historically significant people, including the giants of faith in the Bible.
It is written about Noah that he was “…a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9)
Noah was called by God to build a boat (called an ark) that would be large enough to fit multitudes of animals, along with his family. Then afterwards torrential rains would fall upon the earth and flood it as a form of judgment because of the wickedness of humanity.
Some scholars say it took Noah upwards of 75 years to build the ark, which was constructed during a
a lawless time. The Bible says, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen. 6:5) This meant it was a very long 75 years. For the world at this point had never seen rain, nor a boat, so when Noah explained what he was doing it was likely he faced questions, doubts and ridiculed by his godless enemies. Yet, Noah persisted through it all, “By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark…and became an heir of righteousness.” (Hebrews 11:7)
When God closed the door after Noah boarded the ark and the rains started – it was victory. Then 40 days later when the rain stopped, the floods receded and Noah walked out of the ark to become the father of a new humanity and a new earth – it was victory.
The journey of Noah was not easy. God had him walk through some dark valleys before he could climb to the summit of victory. Why does God operate this way?
One word. Faith. God wants us to depend solely upon Him. Consequently, He takes us through circumstances where we are forced into a choice: God-dependency or self-dependency.
We thank God for the cross of Jesus. He modeled for us God-dependency on His journey to be crucified. And when He rose again from the dead, He provided a way for us to do the same. When we turn from ourselves, while walking through the dark valleys, and trust in Christ alone – we are lifted up to the summit of victory by the grace of God.
A prayer for you – Lord God, you know the dark valleys we are walking through. Help us to stop trusting in ourselves and turn from self-dependency and toward God-dependency. We cannot, but only you can. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
