Lessons from the 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship

The Kansas Jayhawks, probably my favorite team in all of sports, won the NCAA Men's Basketball championship against Memphis last night. They came back from being 9 points down with just over two minutes left to force overtime, where they pulled off a seemingly miraculous win. Memphis missed all but one of its free throws when the game was really on the line, and Kansas put together an inspiring comeback run.

Memphis coach John Calipari described his thoughts for the last 10 seconds of regulation time, when his star Derrick Rose went to shoot two free throws, as follows: "When Derrick went to the line, I sat there and I said, 'Lord, if he makes these two, we're supposed to be national champs. And if that's your will, I'm fine with it. If he misses them, and we're not, I'm fine with that too.' I'm probably not supposed to say that, but that's where I was."

The Yahoo sports-writing guy, Gerry Ahern, reporting on that commented, "Apparently, God's a Jayhawks fan." Though this comment is not as true as I would like it to be (what happened in that 2003 championship game, God?), I am grateful that God let my team win last night. Until now, my team has never won anything important, and I'd begun to think that nothing important was winnable.

Most people, Christians in particular it seems, don't think God cares about sports. I tend to agree (even though I once prayed for Purdue to miss a short field goal in a football game against Wisconsin--they missed it, and Wisconsin won, and it was great), but I think there's more spiritual value in sports than we realize. And I didn't really realize it until the Jayhawks won last night.

God wins. He is victorious over all the evil in the world, all the evil in us. The devil loses. It's supposed to be simple, but in real life it never seems that way. Sometimes it seems like everything I experience is good losing and evil winning in my life, and I get disheartened. The same thing happens in sports. With Kansas down 9 and the game almost over, I was already feeling depressed, feeling the game was put away and there was no chance. Once again my favorite team would lose, as they always lose in the games that matter, and I'd just have to deal with it.

Somehow, though, a long shot from Rose that was ruled a three was reviewed and rightly determined to be only two. That one point could have won the game for Memphis. Somehow Memphis couldn't make a free throw in the final minutes. Somehow Kansas got a steal that turned into a three-pointer to drop the lead to four. Somehow the refs didn't call a foul when Kansas had the last possession with seconds left. Somehow Mario Chalmers from Alaska nailed a three-pointer with a hand in his face with two seconds remaining to force overtime. And somehow they carried that momentum into those extra five minutes to hang an extra 12 points on for the win. The game that seemed lost was won.

If my life were a basketball game, I could look back on many times when I was worse than 9 points down with not much time left and the game seemed lost. There have been several times when I believed that I couldn't come back from the deficit that I had against me. Satan scores as well as anyone, and I start to lose faith that God can win or that he even wants me to win. I get discouraged, and I start to fall even further behind.

Oddly enough, God showed me through the Jayhawks' win that He is winning. Even in staring down an insurmountable lead, He comes from behind. He turns the enemy's shots to bricks and He makes my shots fall. Even when the game gets hard, when the other team makes a really demoralizing shot, when the star player I've counted on can't be counted on anymore, when it seems like there's no way out, I will come back because God is for me. (If only 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 had used sports metaphor.)

I don't think God is a Jayhawks fan. I believe He's my fan. He let my favorite team finally win something--and it was hard and suffered for--to show me that my life is not a losing battle. It will not be crushing blow after crushing blow. And not only does He want me to win, but He won't let me lose, as long as I have faith in Him. I was really joyful after Kansas won, but I was even more joyful thinking about God and how through Him I win no matter what. Thanks to Jesus, I can look forward to a championship that will never fade.

Rock Chalk.