Winners and Losers

Comments I shared following Jason Gray at Eastside Foursquare Church. I will post the audio later this week.

Like most people, I’ve devoted my entire life to trying to not be a loser. We love winners. Ten gold medals isn’t too much for one person. And someone once said “Second place is the first loser.” This is an impossible way to live.

When it comes right down to it, is there some truth in saying that we all are losers, at some point in the game and in certain aspects of our lives?
How many athletes retire as “winners”? Very few. They usually hang on a little too long and retire after a bitter defeat. I won a lot of races, but I lost a whole lot more than I won.
How many CEO’s retire “successfully”? Very few. Most CEO’s leave their companies when they are either bought out or forced out.

There is a problem with winning as well:
The only way to win is to cause others to lose. Ambrose Bierce once observed, "Success is the one unpardonable sin against one's fellows."

Addressing this very issue the Harvard Business Review, recently included an article entitled, "Is Success Sin?" Maybe losing isn’t so bad after all. Perhaps experiencing loss, failure and defeat isn’t as bad as we think it is. In fact, what is most important, is how we respond to defeat.

Jason has addressed an important issue. Let’s be real.

Let us aptly and humbly recognize that we are “losers”, but we are following a winner. We draft behind Him. He pulls us onto a podium that we are not worthy of. He re-defines success.

Paul understood this. He understood that his struggles and his weaknesses were the very places that God wanted to do His greatest work.

2 Corinthians 11:30, 12:9-10

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect (complete) in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me…For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Will you find His strength in the face of your own weaknesses?
Are you aware of the places where you are the weakest?
I am not the most articulate person. I am not the greatest orator. I am not the greatest motivator. I am not the greatest visionary. I am not the perfect husband or the perfect father. Jesus is the greatest motivator. He is the greatest visionary. He is the greatest leader. He is my strength where I am weak.

What’s your ticket to the victor’s stand? It’s right here – symbolized by a piece of bread and a cup of juice.

When we share in communion we are celebrating a defeat that paved the way for a surprise victory that transforms our defeats and struggles.

John 6:35, 40, 47
“I am the bread of life. He who come to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day…I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.”