“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” — Isaiah 43:18-19

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Growing up in Indiana, I learned pretty quickly what mattered — and what didn’t. Basketball mattered. Friday nights in high school gyms mattered. March mattered. Football? Not so much, especially Hoosier football. Indiana University football lived on the fringe of relevance, if that. For most of my life, it felt like an afterthought even within its own state.

The numbers only confirmed what we all felt. Until Curt Cignetti took over two years ago, Indiana was literally the losingest program in college football history. I attended a handful of games growing up, and the stadium was either mostly empty or filled with fans from the opposing team. Indiana was a basketball school. Football was something you tolerated until hoops season arrived.

And then something happened that still doesn’t feel real, especially for a native Hoosier.

Indiana just completed an undefeated football season. Indiana produced the Heisman Trophy winner in Fernando Mendoza. Indiana won the national championship.

If you had told me that would happen when I was a kid growing up in this state, I would have laughed hysterically. Never in my life would I have guessed I’d live to see Indiana football win anything of value, much less a Heisman Trophy and a national championship.

Programs like Indiana just don’t do that. Stories like that belong to other schools. That’s not how the script works.

Except sometimes God loves rewriting the script. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19a). For decades, Indiana football was defined entirely by its past. Its history felt inescapable. And yet, almost overnight, that past lost its power to define what was possible.

Scripture is filled with stories that feel just as unlikely. A shepherd boy defeats a giant. A barren woman gives birth to a nation. A crucified Messiah walks out of a tomb. Paul reminds the Corinthians that “God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

Over and over again, God takes what seems irrelevant, overlooked or hopeless and does something no one saw coming.

I think that’s why stories like this resonate so deeply. Indiana football didn’t just get better; it became something no one thought possible. And in doing so, it exposed how limited our imagination can be when we assume the past defines the future. We do this with teams. We do it with people. And we do it with ourselves.

Maybe you’ve labeled parts of your life as “irrelevant.” A calling that never took off. A prayer that feels unanswered. A dream you quietly buried because it just didn’t seem realistic anymore. Maybe you’ve started to believe, like so many Indiana fans did, that losing is simply your lot.

But the Gospel tells a different story. God is not bound by our history, our reputation or our expectations. He specializes in taking what looks finished and declaring it new. What feels impossible to us is often just the starting point for Him.

Indiana’s football championship doesn’t prove that God cares about wins and trophies. But it serves as a tangible example that no story is too small, no past is too broken, and no future too unlikely for God to redeem.

Sometimes faith isn’t believing God will do what we expect — it’s trusting Him enough to believe He might do something even better.

— Cole Claybourn

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