Saints kicker John Carney, right, is congratulated by safety Steve Gleason in 2004. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
“Jeremiah said to the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: “When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they return back?”‘” — Jeremiah 8:4
Beauty In Failure
Last year on the Sports Spectrum podcast I asked former NFL kicker John Carney what was the biggest lesson that he was learning from God at that moment. His answer was really great: “Courage to fail.”
In sports, failure is inevitable. It happens to everyone, even the all-time greats.
Michael Jordan once said, “I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Whether it is with your marriage, your family, your job, or even your faith, we all make regretful decisions. We all fail. We all do dumb things.
And yet, there’s beauty in the failure. There’s something wonderful about doing your best, falling short and not giving up. There’s beauty in continuing to not give in, continuing to get back up, continuing to move forward.
Just because you fail does not mean you’re a failure. You are not a failure. You are loved. You are cherished. You are important. You are valuable.
So when you stumble, get back up. Keep fighting. Keep leaning on the only One whose love is never failing. And keep on keeping on.
Greater things have yet to come.
— Jason Romano, Sports Spectrum Podcast Host
If you would like to submit a reader devotional, please email all submissions to jason@sportsspectrum.com.
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth… But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven… For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” — Matthew 6:19-21
It was my senior year of high school, and the dream of qualifying for the state tennis tournament was right in front of me.
I entered the divisional tournament as the No. 6 seed, and opposing coaches were calling me the “dark horse” contender. But because it was the postseason, the stakes were absolute: A first-round loss meant my high school tennis career was over.
In the third and deciding set of that opening round, I had clawed my way to a commanding 4-1 lead. State was just two matches away. I could practically taste the victory.
But in tennis, as in life, momentum is incredibly fragile.
A missed shot, a double fault, a wave of tension — and just like that, the lead evaporated. I lost the match, and my career was over in an instant. The heartbreak was devastating, but what made it worse was sitting in the bleachers afterward, watching the tournament move on without me while the opponent who beat me was eliminated in the very next round. It felt like it was all for nothing.
It took me a long time to process that afternoon, but the lesson of that blown 4-1 lead has become one of the most valuable truths of my faith.
We often live life striving for earthly “wins” — financial security, physical health, career success and recognition. We get comfortable, look at our circumstances, and think, “I’ve got this. I’m up 4-1.”
But earthly security is an illusion.
In a single moment, a doctor’s phone call can shatter our health. A sudden layoff can erase a job. A tragedy can break a family. The things we think we have locked down can vanish in the blink of an eye, leaving us on the sidelines wondering how a career, a plan or a life could end so quickly.
If our identity is anchored in the temporary things of this world, we will constantly live in fear of the next momentum shift.
In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us not to anchor our hearts to things that can be ruined or stolen in a split second. When we invest our lives in loving God, serving others and sharing the Gospel, we store up Heavenly treasures that no sudden trial or loss can touch. Our identity is no longer based on the scoreboard of life; it is eternally secured in the victory Christ already won on the cross.
Don’t build your foundation on a lead that can slip away. Anchor your soul in the only One who remains the same yesterday, today and forever.
Of all the offensive strategies in hockey, one of the most important is moving the puck “low to high.” When the puck gets trapped below the goal line and the defense collapses, spreading it up top changes the angle and opens space that wasn’t there before.
Younger players often try to battle in the corner forever, thinking effort alone will create an opportunity. But as players grow and their understanding of the game develops, they realize the smartest plays aren’t about forcing it — they’re about vision, timing and trusting the bigger picture.
In John 6, a young boy handed over five loaves and two fish. It didn’t look like much compared to the size of the crowd. From every logical perspective, it wasn’t enough. But once it was placed in Jesus’ hands, what seemed small became more than enough. “Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish” (v. 11).
“Low to high” isn’t just a play on the ice. It’s a posture of trust we should have in our lives.
There will be moments when what you bring feels limited, whether that be your role, influence or opportunities. The temptation will often be to fight in your own strength or force something that was never meant to be.
Although it seems counterintuitive, faith often looks like surrender. When we release what we have to God, He has a way of creating opportunities we never could on our own. Whatever you may be facing, go low to high and allow God to handle it.
— Sam Gonzalez, Hockey Ministries International chaplain
Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Despite going 13-4 and winning the AFC South a season ago under first-year head coach Liam Coen, the Jacksonville Jaguars have largely flown under the radar in offseason talks about potential Super Bowl contenders. Many experts predict the Jaguars to take a significant step back in 2026-27.
But as Coen enters his second year at the helm, with quarterback Trevor Lawrence returning, he believes his team can not only replicate last season’s success but continue to improve on it. If they do, it will mark the Jaguars’ first back-to-back postseason appearances this century.
“In everything that we do, we are training to say, ‘Anyone, any time, any way,'” Coen said as he addressed his team during the first week of training camp. “We built the standard and the foundation and the way that we want to play the game.”
At 40 years old, Coen is one of the younger head coaches in the NFL, and he’s also a member of the famed Sean McVay coaching tree; Coen learned under the Los Angeles Rams head coach as a position coach for three years (2018-20) and the offensive coordinator for another (2022). In 2024, Coen was the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and helped fuel the career renaissance of QB Baker Mayfield. In his first year in Jacksonville last season, he became the NFL’s first rookie head coach to win 13 or more games after his team won four or fewer games the prior season.
During Coen’s coaching journey, he’s established himself as an offensive mastermind and a skilled quarterback developer. He’s also made it known during his time in the spotlight that he’s a follower of Christ.
Coen was a guest on the “Built 4 More” podcast last week with pastor Joby Martin and Denny Thompson, where the coach discussed one of the most difficult experiences of his life and how Christ formed his faith through the trial.
Coen grew up as an only child in Rhode Island, where he was a football fanatic and very close with his mother, Beth. But when Liam was in high school, Beth felt something was off. After numerous appointments, the doctors concluded that she’d contracted Lyme disease. The former marathon runner now struggled to get out of bed each morning. The physical pain was excruciating, and there was little improvement. But the emotional toll grew unbearable.
Four years later, in 2006, Coen was chasing his gridiron dream in college at UMass. He returned home during a school break, and his dad was in the hospital with congestive heart failure. While Coen was at the hospital with him, his mother took her own life.
Coen needed to care for his dad in the immediate aftermath, and then he rushed to return to school and join his team. Suddenly, he was back on a college campus, going to classes and practices like nothing had changed.
“I didn’t probably deal with it right, or well, in that short term,” Coen admitted on the podcast.
But this was different than anything he’d experienced before. The pain of losing his mother in the way he did wasn’t going away.
“Come to find out, 10 years down the road, it creeps up on you when you don’t deal with it,” he said on the podcast. “You don’t process it, you don’t forgive, you don’t have grace. It started to eat at me, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what was really happening. I wasn’t feeling right.”
He found people to talk through his traumatic past, and amidst those sessions, Jesus became a frequent topic of conversation. Coen had attended a private Catholic high school and learned many of the rituals, but he had never truly discovered the essence of Christianity.
“I actually began to have a relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said of that time. “And oh my gosh, I started to have more grace, and I started to forgive, and I started to have a little bit more understanding of what she went through and why.”
He had been given new life in Christ.
That new life was only strengthened during his time as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kentucky (2021, 2023) through the ministry of the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) chapter. There, Coen was introduced to a man who handed him a small but extremely helpful packet about the Bible.
“I didn’t know what Jesus did,” Coen said on the podcast. “I didn’t know what He sacrificed. I didn’t know why He was truly put on this earth.”
Coen’s story of unthinkable pain followed by the power of healing found in Christ is a testimony of God’s goodness that he’s shared with his team and those close to him.
“Once I understood [true faith] and learned and was educated, I felt a different vibe,” he concluded. “I felt a different way of wanting to represent God — Jesus Christ, myself, my family, the way that I carry myself, the grace or honesty that you live life with.
“Perfect? Absolutely not. No question. But I know that it helped me when I actually built a relationship with a Power greater than myself in Jesus Christ.”
find someone who looks at you the way Liam Coen looks at Parker Washington
Now, in the hyper-competitive world of NFL football, with a nation’s eyes soon falling again on his sport, Coen has an opportunity to point others to Christ — the Fountain of true life — both in the 2026-27 season and beyond. Jacksonville’s first preseason game is Aug. 15 in New Orleans.
Mexico's Diana Ordonez celebrates after scoring, June 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” — 2 Corinthians 5:20
It’s common to see people get lost in the pursuit of identity within their sport, title, status, income and other various things that seem to carry weight in a world always looking for the next best thing. As believers in Christ, we know we are called to live set apart, but how does that apply to identity as an athlete?
Second Corinthians 5:20a tells us, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” As an ambassador, we are to represent that with which we identify, so to identify with Christ is to reflect Him in all we do. Where sports were seen as performance, they can now be worship. Where achievement and failure defined ourselves, wins and losses can now bring glory to God.
How we conduct ourselves reveals what we truly believe about the character of God. As an athlete, we have the opportunity to not just talk about the Lord, but to reflect Him in how we compete, interact and live our day-to-day lives. Are we reflecting a God of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23)? Does our speech come from a heart that is rooted in the confidence of the Lord?
Sports are what we do, but they are not who we are. As followers of Jesus, we can rest in the promise that we are victorious in His name.
