Finding Victory in Defeat: June 18th Devotional

Finding Victory in Defeat

Psalm 37:23-24

June 18th Devotional

      On this day in 1985, the New York Knicks picked Patrick Ewing as the number one pick in the NBA draft. The 1985 draft was the first of its kind, created to prevent teams from tanking to get the best draft pick (ironically teams still do the same thing today). The Knicks pick at number one was mired in controversy because David Stern the NBA general manager was an adamant New York Knicks fan. Many people felt that the envelope with the Knicks logo inside was marked in a way that Stern would pick it. Either way, the pick of Patrick Ewing changed the future of the New York Knicks for the next 15 years. Ewing was born in Kingston Jamaica and attended college for Georgetown, where three out of the four years he led the hoyas to the NCAA championship game, winning the national title in 1984 against Villanova, the final score being 66 to 64. Patrick Ewing stunned audiences in Madison square garden during his rookie year with his incredible talent and authority in the paint, winning the NBA Rookie of the Year award. His looming seven-foot stature was an incredible force of nature. Patrick would play seventeen years in the NBA, fifteen for the Knicks, one for the SuperSonics, and one for the Orlando Magic. His most notable years were spent with the Knicks where they were constantly a playoff team. He was an 11-time All-Star and a two-time gold medalist. Ewing's career was always overshadowed by the greatness of Michael Jordan, but the Knicks were able to play in two championships while Ewing was with them. In 1994 they lost a 7-game series against the Houston Rockets and then again in 1999 losing in a 5-game series to the San Antonio Spurs. Patrick Ewing was most recently the coach of the Georgetown Hoyas.

      Despite Patrick Ewing's great talent, he was never able to bring a championship to Madison Square Gardens. Everyone that has ever played a game or a sport loves the taste of victory but despises the pain of losing. More often than not we will lose more than win, and that applies spiritually too. We will endure hardships and battle temptation, and we will not always find ourselves on the winning end. We will have fought and resisted and yet found ourselves in defeat. But as Christians, we cannot allow our defeats to define us. Psalm 37:23-24 says “The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand." The psalmist makes it clear that we will indeed stumble, we will indeed fail, but God is faithful and is bigger than our failures. We will not fall because God holds us up with his hand. When we find ourselves on the losing end let us not linger in our defeat but let us learn lessons in our defeat so that we would find victory in the Lord the next time. You will win, you will lose, but God is everlasting in his faithfulness and his love for you changes not.