Learn from Defeats and Triumphs
I just completed watching Rory McIlroy win the 111th United States Open Golf Championship. It was quite an impressive performance. He won the tournament by eight strokes over his next closest competitor.
Winning a golf tournament by eight shots is akin to winning a football game by about five touchdowns or winning a baseball game by 10 runs. In fact, Rory McIlroy led the U.S. Open after the first three rounds and shot under 70 for all four of his rounds.
What makes McIlroy’s win so amazing is that a couple of months ago he was leading in Augusta in the final round of the Masters. McIlroy shot an 80. Eighty is a score that I would love to shoot but is pretty bad for a professional golfer. Thus, Rory McIlroy lost the Masters in devastating fashion.
However, Rory McIlroy came back from that defeat and prevailed by winning one of golf’s major championships by taking the title at the U.S. Open. Rory McIlroy learned the lessons of his defeat and grew from them and emerged a champion.
Sunday morning as I was driving to church I heard golfer Curtis Strange, a two-time U.S. Open champion, discussing Rory McIlroy. Strange said, “I never learned from winning a golf tournament, I only learned from those tournaments I lost.” I don’t quite agree with Strange’s assessment. I believe we can learn from the triumphs of life. However, he makes a salient point. Our defeats in life can be teaching moments.
We all face moments of defeat in life. We might lose a job. We might suffer a broken relationship. We might have a setback in our business. We might have a bad score on a test in school. Life deals us all sorts of setbacks.
The test of our character isn’t whether or not life sometimes defeats us. Rather, the test of our character is found in how we respond to the setbacks of life. When life sends defeat our way we can be bitter about our defeats. Yet, what does bitterness do to make us stronger. The truth is that the only thing that bitterness yields is bitterness.
We can be stoic in our moments of defeat. Indeed this protects us from the sting of defeat. While a stoic approach does protect us in our moments of defeat it does not allow us to enjoy our moments of victory.
God’s way is for us to grow from our moments of defeat. I certainly don’t believe that God brings about our moments of defeat in life; I do believe that God is at work in life’s setbacks preparing us for another opportunity.
Life does not guarantee that every day will be victorious, but God promises that even in life’s setbacks he was at work for the good of his children.