Ten years ago, Steph Curry and Davidson made an improbable NCAA Tournament run all the way to the Elite 8. Curry won’t be wearing number 30 for the Wildcats on Thursday night against Kentucky, but Davidson is back in the tournament after winning the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship on Sunday.
Head coach Bob McKillop, in his 29th season at Davidson, wasn't favored to bring his team to the Big Dance. After struggling early on and not handling his frustration well, he decided he had to change his approach.
He explained, “Right before the St. Louis game , I told the team, ‘I’m coaching angry: We do these things over and over in practice, and you do these things perfect in practice. And then we go into a game, and it’s as if you forgot what we do in practice so very well. I need to start coaching with joy.’”
They went on to win their next five games and recently won eight of their last nine games, including their conference tournament run. As Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer put it, “When coach Bob McKillop found joy, Davidson found success.”
Following their A-10 victory, McKillop said, “I smiled a lot this weekend. I smiled through mistakes and I smiled on great plays...”
This is a great story of how joy can carry a team through the ups and downs of a season and result in confidence and winning. Usually, we think in sports and life that success brings us joy, but Davidson demonstrated how joy leads to success.
As followers of Jesus, joy is a strong indicator of our spirit being aligned with Him and our heart being committed to Him. As we experience the ups and downs of life, we can operate out of joy because of His love and what He has done for us on the cross.
Unfortunately, we sometimes lose sight of that and allow negative emotions to take over during our struggles. When we’re waiting for an answered prayer or frustrated that God didn't come through like we thought He should, we actually hold ourselves back from being joyful.
But what if we stopped buying into the lie that we can’t be joyful because things aren’t going the way we want? What if we changed our perspective and saw joy leading to “winning” instead of putting off joy until we “win?”
The truth is, even if we lose, our joy remains because of Who remains in us. We should be able to join McKillop by saying, “I smiled through mistakes and I smiled on great plays...”
Jesus tells us in John 15:9-11 (NLT), “I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!”
Today as we live in victory, let’s be filled with joy that overflows because of Jesus. I’m Bryce Johnson and you can UNPACK that!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I know that true and lasting joy is found in Your son Jesus. I place my hope and trust in Him. I pray I’d live a life of joy even during difficulties as I keep my eyes focused on Jesus. It’s in His name I pray, Amen.
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