DAILY DEVOTIONAL – May 1, 2020
“Be A Winner and Lose“
Prayer: Almighty God, as the Scriptures say, we confess, that we all are lost and have lost. In our sinfulness, we like Adam and Eve, have lost Eden and separated ourselves from You. But You have given us the victory in Your Son Jesus. His righteousness and His resurrection are the hope of our salvation. Thank you God, for Jesus. Amen.
Scripture: Mark 9:33-35
And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35 And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
Devotional – “Be A Winner…And Lose”
The legendary football coach Vince Lombardi is famous for saying, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” As Harvey Robbins and Michael Finley recall in their book entitled TransCompetition, when Coach Lombardi saw how his words were being used by other coaches, he regretted what he said about winning. Lombardi said, “I wished I’d never said it. I meant that everything needed to win is the only thing. I sure didn’t mean for people to crush human values and morality.”
Lombardi was a professional football player, coach, and executive in the National Football League (NFL). He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total NFL Championships in seven years, in addition to winning the first two Super Bowls at the conclusion of the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons.
If you know much of anything about Vince Lombardi, you would know what he absolutely did not mean when he said “winning is the only thing.” Lombardi was such a success not because he valued winning above all else, but because the things he did value were what made winners…even if his team lost. What Lombardi meant I think can be best understood by hearing more of what Lombardi said in proper context.
Lombardi spoke a lot about winning. For example he said,
“The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
“Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is.”
“Winning means you’re willing to go longer, work harder, give more than anyone else.”
And perhaps my favorite Lombardi quote:
“When we place our dependence in God, we are unencumbered, and we have no worry. In fact, we may even be reckless, insofar as our part in the production is concerned. This confidence, this sureness of action, is both contagious and an aid to the perfect action. The rest is in the hands of God – and this is the same God, gentlemen, who has won all His battles.”
What made Vince Lombardi such a winning coach was, I believe, his deep faith in God. One of Lombardi’s aspirations before becoming a coach was to become a priest. Lombardi was clearly not shy about his faith. He also once told his team, “There are three things that are important to every man in this locker room. His God, his family, and the Green Bay Packers. In that order.”
There is nothing wrong with wanting to win. In fact, the Apostle Paul encourages us to live life as if striving to win a race. He says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, “24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”
It’s not the desire to win that compromises our character, but what we desire to win. If like the disciples in our text for today in Mark 9, we run and strive to win the race of popularity or the approval of our fellow man, then we have already lost the race regardless of what ribbon may be pinned on our chest. However, if we run as Paul says “to discipline” ourselves so that we would win the race of salvation, then we will find that Christ has already won the victory for us on the cross. There is nothing left to achieve in the eyes of God. There is nothing left to win or accomplish. We should desire to win, to work hard, to give our best to God in all things, because we are winners, not because we have prevailed, but because Christ has risen victoriously from the grave on our behalf.
When we understand God’s grace in Jesus, when we know the reality of what He has won for us through His death and resurrection, then our very definition of winning changes, and what we consider a victory is no longer defined by rising above others, but by serving others. As Jesus told the disciples who were fighting over who was the greatest, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” That is exactly who Christ was and is. The suffering Servant who revealed His eternal power by laying down His life for sinners and picking it up again, defeating sin, death and the devil, so that whoever puts their hope and faith in Christ’s victory, would receive the gift of eternal life and win the race.
When we stand before our Maker and Creator, we cannot bring our trophies with us. Our many friends cannot vouch for us. Our big bank accounts cannot purchase a ticket to heaven, and no matter what we think of ourselves, God see us for who we really are. He knows we have all lost, we have all sinned and none of us deserve to win. But in His love and mercy, God has given the blood of His Son so that by grace through faith in Christ’s greatness and in His victory, we would be given the prize of eternal life that He deserves. That’s the truly Good News of the Gospel.
Win the race my friends. Keep the faith. Serve others and put them first as Christ did for us, and trust that in so doing we will experience the joy of His winning.
Thanks for joining me today for another devotional in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
