I've Lost a Lot

1/24/16

Tomorrow I turn 21 years old.  This is really weird to think about.  Some days I feel like I live the life a fifty-year-old and other days, I still feel like I am five, but in reflecting in my life, I realized I'm a loser…and that's ok!

My freshmen football team only won one game.  Ever since I started playing basketball and managing it, I've always been on teams with a losing record. My two-year high school tennis career had only one match victory in it.  And don't even make me talk about my attempt at throwing for the track and field team my freshmen year of high school.  

So yes, my athletic career has been very less than stellar, borderline pathetic, but that's not bad.  Losing helps you learn what your true character is.  (I feel like this is the only thing I have written about but...) True life isn't found in worldly victory.  Losing is really hard to do, but we need to be able to win at losing.

Even though it doesn't feel like it for many others, and DEFINITELY myself, but sports are such a minor detail in the great big world we live in.  I want to have a career in sports, but I realize that they are very minuscule in the realm of issues we deal with.  Winning in sports is a very small victory and losing is a very small defeat.  Learning how to cope with the small helps us learn how to handle the serious things that happen in our lives.

One thing that has really bothered me recently was the WIAA (Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association) recently banning student sections from doing certain cheers at basketball games, such as shouting air-ball if a player misses.  This made me, and lots of national broadcasters, so mad.  People need to know when what they did was wrong.  I think we need more things that tell us we aren't great because we aren't.

An air ball is a very small issue, but it is something that needs to be fixed and nothing gets fixed without accountability, even if that accountability is from an awkward sixteen-year-old in the opposing student section.   The player needs to know what they did was wrong.   Even though getting "taunted" makes you feel like a loser, it should, because what you did was wrong.

We need harsh words.  Ever read the Bible? It is filled with words that should make us feel bad about ourselves because we are bad.  

The more we realize how often we lose and how big of losers we are, we realize how great Christ's victory is.  Losing, from an air ball to whatever the worst thing you can think of, is ok, because our God is the ultimate winner.  There is no way we can win this life on our own.  We lose a lot and we are all losers, but God is great at winning.

The best part about God's winning is that he lets us join in.  He doesn't brag.  He doesn't rub the trophy in our face but gives it to us instead.  God takes all the losers who acknowledge his winning and makes them victors.  This is something only He can do.  So don't be ashamed of being a loser, but look to the ultimate winner when you are down.  Let your losses be Christ's victories.