Winning!!!

“And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed." - Genesis 32:28

We live in a win-at-all-cost world – second place is really viewed as “first loser”, and NO ONE wants to be a loser. We come up with saying after saying that if you look close enough, while they don’t clearly state it, make it very plain we will accept nothing less than winning. Statements like “Those who can’t do, coach!”, or “If you can accept losing, you can't win.”, or my personal favorite that describes it best, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!”. Without a doubt everyone wants to “win” at whatever they put their mind and hands to. I mean, winning is surely always better than losing, right? Hmmmm... not in all cases…

We can all agree that winning is fun, and we should certainly always strive to be the best at whatever we do. To do less than our best is to settle for being less than what we could be, and to settle for less than what we could be is, well, sad. Perhaps what is even sadder, though, is not realizing that “being first” and “being your best” are not always synonymous with each other. The reality is you can win and not be first, providing you strive to be and to do your best in the process. Vince Lombardi said it this way – “The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.” Truth is, all people are not created equal - there will always be someone more talented, someone with better skills, someone who’s capabilities are far greater than ours – someone smarter, stronger, faster… just flat-out better. So the real question centers on whether we are doing the best and the most we possibly can with what we “have” to work with.

Spiritually speaking, many times losing is really winning. In fact, this is never more evident than when we are truly striving to live our lives for the Lord. If you haven’t realized it by now, God works from a completely different paradigm on this front. We find in the Bible statements like “"Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.", “He must increase, but I must decrease”, and so on. Talk about counter-cultural statements – this does not even come close to fitting into our cultural belief systems. We see over and over again that when it comes to living a life pleasing to God, “losing” (becoming the least) means “winning” (being the greatest).

Consider Jacob… if you read the verse above from Genesis 32 as it is, out of context, you would be led to believe that Jacob was the consummate winner, finding victory not only over man but God Himself. But a closer, in-context read of the passage it is taken from tells quite the opposite story. By the time you get to that verse, Jacob has wrestled all night with “the Man” - with the pre-incarnate Christ in human form – and has had his hip dislocated at the end of the “match” by a touch of Christ’s finger. Clinging to Him and asking for a blessing, Jesus responds to the request by saying, “Tell me your name.” We could spend all day on just that question alone but, for the sake of time and space, let me just clarify that Jesus was really asking Jacob to admit who he was. To admit that he had truly lived to the meaning of his name which was “heel-catcher, supplanter, usurper”, or to be more clear “manipulator, liar, thief.” So when Jacob responded with “My name is Jacob…” it was an admission before God that, in short, he was a great sinner in need of a great Savior, AND an acknowledgment of his need to be conquered by God.

There is so much in this passage to expound on but, for this post, the point is this - clearly we see in this story, and throughout Scriptures, that to be exalted you must be humble, to go high you must go low, to be strong you must be weak, to be the greatest you must become the servant of all… ultimately, to win you must first be “defeated” (read “governed”) by the One who is greater, for even Jesus said of Himself, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give His life a ransom for many.”

Let’s follow in His example – let’s consider others before ourselves, let’s love others even at our own expense, let’s, as it says in Micah 6:8, “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” with our God… let “Governed by God” be our victoriously defeated name!

Selah, my friends!

I Would Have Lost Heart...

“I would have lost heart, unless I had believed

That I would see the goodness of the LORD

In the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD;

Be of good courage,

And He shall strengthen your heart;

Wait, I say, on the LORD!”

Psalm 27:13-14

Tomorrow is a special day to those of us who call the United States our home… it is the day we celebrate our independence and freedom, and the official birth, as it were, of our great nation. I know there is much turmoil today in our country that could temper our enthusiasm to celebrate together this great country we are privileged to live in but trust me, as one who has had the immense privilege to travel and see God’s hand at work in many other countries, we are truly blessed to call the USA our home.

As I sit here this evening reflecting on tomorrow, I am reminded that July 4th will never be viewed in the same way for me in light of the anniversary I “celebrated” today. It was July 3, 2014, when I sat in my Neurologist’s office, having the shopping to do right afterwards for our Fourth of July celebration that was to occur the next day, that I heard those words, “We believe you have ALS.” from two Neurologists, one of which has become a regular part of my life and that I have come to trust greatly over these three years. These three years have been a journey… one that in my flesh I would prefer to not have taken, but in my spirit I am so thankful for. If I were to begin to write of all the lessons learned on this journey, things the Lord has blessed me to come to know and to grow in, and others I am still grasping to fully lay hold of,  I am sure it would be quite some time before my writing would end… and those lessons, truths, and insights just keep getting added to daily.

One truth stands fast in the midst of it all, that I cling to moment to moment daily, and it is perfectly given to us in the quote above from Psalm 27:13-14. You see, every day I wake and move to get out of bed; every night I am awakened by cramps that cause me to get out of bed to somehow find relief; every time I go to put on my shoes and see that ankle brace that has become a regular item of “clothing” for me; every time I struggle to keep my balance doing the simplest of tasks; every time I have to watch my wife or kids or someone else do something that is “my job” to do; every time I go to speak and realize my speech is slowly changing and causing me to concentrate more on the simple task of talking; in these moments, and so many others, I am reminded of this disease I have and I am tempted to lose heart in the midst of the battle, yet He patiently and lovingly draws me back to those precious words. God has truly poured out His goodness in the land of the living through the sending of His Son, and if He had done nothing more than that it would be all we should need, yet for so many of us in the U.S. He has done so much more. I have personally seen God pour out His goodness in my life, goodness so undeserved, and I am compelled by His faithfulness toward me to daily trust and wait on Him, looking to Him to be the great Orchestrator of my life – which is the most courageous thing this self-centered, self-reliant person can muster up. In doing this, I have daily found the strength to press on for Him and to His glory. It has not always been easy, but neither was going to the cross for Jesus – what is my struggle when compared to the sacrifice that He made for me and us? So, to honor the One who gave His life for me, I wait and trust and rely on God to be God, and allow Him to have His work in and through me, whatever that work is, knowing that whatever that work accomplishes it will bring glory to Him and Him alone.

Interestingly, this leads me to a truth that stands out from Psalm 27 in relation to what we celebrate tomorrow as Americans. It may sound simplistic but here it is - we have the freedom to celebrate our Independence Day tomorrow simply because our courageous ancestors claimed their DEPENDENCE first upon God and then on one another as they set forth on the dangerous task of creating a God-fearing free nation. From God’s Word, exemplified by our founder’s actions, we learn that true independence - real independence - requires a Godly dependence and sacrifice, and that, my friends, never comes cheaply or without a high cost. Our forefathers knew this, and won our independence by being willing to depend upon the Hand of the Almighty God and a willingness to wait on and trust in Him, while being willing to pay the ultimate price if necessary. The question then must be asked - am I, are we, willing to individually learn this lesson and do the same? I can truly say I have experienced a greater freedom, an independence from the things of this world and that would hold me back – pride, defeat, self-pity, anger, frustration, quitting the fight - through living a life of greater dependence, first upon God and then upon those He has surrounded me with. Yes, there have been and continue to be times when it is humbling and extremely hard, but what a glorious humbling it is when I am willing to trust and wait on the Lord as He daily unfolds His plan for me and my life. I may not know fully the end of this road He has me on and what He will accomplish through it, but I pray I am able to remain totally dependent upon Him for every single breath, every single heartbeat until the day He calls me home! Until then, I will wait on and trust in the Lord.

Happy Independence Day...  Selah!!