Handling Disappointment

Handling Disappointment

Longtime head coach of the New England Patriots Bill Belichick isn’t known for his oratory skills. He has a stoic, unemotional approach to communicating with the media. This is the case when his team wins and when they lose. After the Patriots lost the 2015 AFC Championship game in Denver, Belichick noted that he was disappointed that they didn’t accomplish everything they had set out to do. When asked about how he would evaluate the team for the following year, Belichick, in true form, said, “We will evaluate the team this year the same way we have in years past.”

Thirty-one of thirty-two teams will end the NFL season disappointed. It is a fact of all athletic competition that only one team can come out on top as the champions. Evaluating the team to get better for next season is a disciplined process of analyzing strengths and weaknesses and seeing where improvement can come through the draft and free agency.

Handling disappointment in life isn’t as simple or clean. A lot of emotion can spill out when they’re probably better left contained. Oftentimes, we express our disappointment to others who have no power to resolve things, but we never speak directly to the decision makers who can get things done if they know how disappointed we are. Matthew 18:15 instructs us well here: “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.” Hard conversations can be fruitful if we handle them well, but we must handle ourselves first so that our message to those who have disappointed us can be heard.

If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.

Matthew 18:15