I'm a Loser

Remember back in the 90's when Coca-Cola, and maybe other soft drink companies, had the "Twist and Win" game?  You could win prizes when you twisted off the cap of the bottle, if you had a winning bottle cap.  There were some cash prizes and vacation trips given away, but most of the winning bottle caps prized the winner with another bottle of Coke. 

On a weekend trip, we stopped at a convenience store and bought three bottled cokes.  Back in the car and on the road, I asked my daughter if she was a winner.  She wanted to remove her bottle cap last, so I started unscrewing the lid of mine.  Inside the cap were the words, "Try Again."  I remember voicing the words in a sad tone, "I'm a loser."  I urged my daughter to look at her bottle cap, but she insisted on being last so Mom went next.  Her bottle cap contained the same message as mine, "Try Again."   She could be heard saying, "I am a loser, too."   Now it was up to the daughter.  She slowly removed the bottle cap, read the message inside, but wouldn't tell us what it said.

We coaxed her enough she finally gave in, and confessed her message was just like the other two, "Try Again."  Then she said, "I shouldn't expect anything else.  I come from a whole family of losers."  I remember all the laughter as we enjoyed our Cokes, and teasing each other about being losers.

Joking aside, do we Christians ever think of ourselves as being losers?  We can lose at a board game, we can lose to a better team in sports.  We can lose our job or lose our house.  We can lose a loved one.

Is there ever a time when losing is a good thing?  I think there is.   What if you lost your habit of gossip? Or what if you lost all of your bitter feelings toward others?  You might even see an improvement in yourself if you lost all envy, impure thoughts, the love of money, or countless other things.  In fact, if we all could just lose everything that stands between us and God, what a difference that would make. So think about being a loser of some specific sin or weakness, and realize what a blessing that could be.   

Are you willing to lose everything?  Consider with me, as we contemplate losing those things that bring spiritual harm to us, we are in a good position to gain eternity, when we are willing to give up everything else.   A better way to think of it is, we humans have the opportunity to trade our nothingness, for everything God has to offer. 

When you are a loser by the world's standards, that brings you down and finding happiness and completeness will always be beyond your reach.  When we are losers, based on eternity, we must be willing to lose it all, to empty ourselves of our accomplishments and the world's rewards, to receive that which Jesus promises he is preparing for us.  That's the kind of loser I want to be.

"What shall if profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?"

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