As long as I can remember, I have loved winning and hated losing. Not alone in that mentality, many others share this competitive nature with me. Do you? For things that really matter to you, even if you are not quite as competitive as some, I am sure you love winning and hate losing.
What is the cost of winning, though? How much are we willing to sacrifice in order to succeed? Are we willing to pay the price?
Growing up, when it came to basketball – perhaps more than anything else – I wanted to be a winner. I wanted to be the best. I never really was the best, but that was not for lack of trying. Since the third grade and until my sophomore year of college, I spent at least 2-3 hours per day (sometimes many more) in the summer months and at least 30-45 minutes during the off-season school months working on my basketball game. Ball handling drills, shooting drills, lifting weights, push-ups and sit-ups, jumping and agility drills – anything I learned from my dad and others that would make me better, I tried.
I counted the cost of what I believed and what I was told it would take to achieve success, and I embraced that cost. The cost of winning was worth it to me.
A BETTER VICTORY
So much better than winning at basketball, though, is the victory that comes from the Lord. On Sunday morning, Lord willing, I will be preaching through 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 on “The Cost (of discipleship that leads to church unity): Whatever It Takes.”
As a child and as a teenager, I felt like I was willing to do whatever it took to be the best I could be at basketball. I made a lot of sacrifices for the sake of getting better. Never did I get as good as I wanted to get. Maybe I became a better-than-average player trapped in a below-average athletically gifted body. Maybe God was protecting me from the pride and foolishness that would have resulted if I did truly achieve the success for which I longed. I am not sure.
My goal was to play division-I college basketball, though. Well, I did not accomplish my goal. Was all that sacrifice worth it? To some degree, yes – I learned a lot about hard work, commitment, and dedication. To some degree, no – I am sure I, at least at times, sacrificed at the expense of other things that were more important than basketball. Then again, I was not yet a follower of Jesus Christ, so I did not really comprehend what those “better things” might be. I had yet to realize that a better victory was available – a victory that I could never attain on my own but that had been won on my behalf.
WANTING TO WIN
That better victory is so much better because it is a victory that lasts forever. It is a victory that we were created to long for and be miserable without. It is the victory that satisfies not only what we need most but also defines our very purpose. Have you experienced that victory – the victory that comes only in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ?
If you have experienced victory in Jesus, then you want a kind of winning that is so much greater than the winning I longed for as a basketball player. You want to experience winning people to Jesus. You want to follow Jesus and help others to follow Jesus. And, the cost of that kind of winning truly is worth the cost – worth the cost of stepping out of our comfort zones and risking our very lives so that others can experience the greatest victory.
If we are willing to sacrifice for worldly success, how much more should we willingly sacrifice for eternal impact?
I always attributed my work ethic and competitive nature to my dad, and there is certainly some truth to that because I am not sure if I have ever known someone as hard-working and competitive as my dad. He also loved to win, and some of my greatest childhood memories are when we won at things together. What I have come to realize, though, is that the longing to win is really the way God created us. We were made in His image, and so we were made to love and long for victory. He is the greatest Victor of all, and when we know and follow Him, we will want to experience that victory and help others experience that victory. Then, more than ever, is the cost of winning worth the sacrifice.
Praise be to God!
DrakeCity 