The Scoreboard
Watch what a hard loss does to a team and you’ll learn everything you need to know about that team.
Some teams turn on each other. The blame starts. The finger-pointing. Conversations that should happen in the room start happening in the parking lot and in text threads. Distance opens up between people who need each other.
Other teams get closer. The shared difficulty pulls them toward each other instead of apart. They process it together instead of separately.
Which one are we going to be?
Read this passage slowly.
Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: if either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 — NIVLet that sit for a second before you move.
Ecclesiastes 4 was written by someone who had tried every version of success and found most of it hollow. And in the middle of that honest assessment, he stops and says: two are better than one. The person who can help you up when you fall — that’s the thing that actually matters.
A loss is a fall. Not a failure, not a disaster — a fall. And the question a fall always asks is: who is there to help you up?
The isolation that comes after a hard loss is one of the most dangerous things that can happen to a team. When people stop talking, stop being honest with each other, start protecting themselves instead of investing in the group — the team doesn’t just lose the next game. It loses something more important.
Staying together after a loss is a decision. It doesn’t happen automatically. It requires someone to reach toward another person when the pull is to pull back. It requires the people in this room to choose the team over their own comfort or self-protection.
That choice is available right now. Today. In how you talk to each other. In whether you process this together or separately. In whether you point fingers or link arms.
Two are better than one. Three are better than two. A whole team choosing each other after a hard loss is the hardest thing to beat.
A whole team choosing each other after a hard loss is the hardest thing to beat.
Is there anyone in this room you’ve been pulling back from since the loss — blaming quietly, or just putting distance between yourself and them? What would it look like to move toward them instead?
This question is personal and potentially vulnerable. Don’t force public answers. You can offer it as a private reflection and then ask if anyone wants to share.
Choose each other. Today. That’s how you get up.
If you know there is specific blame or conflict between players following the loss, this devotional directly addresses it without calling anyone out. Let the discussion question do the work.
Scripture, teach from “A loss is a fall” to the end, send-off.