When We don't Win

There are thousands of hardworking Christians around who can testify to the fact that God allows us to fail. Just because we are faithful and put a lot of prayer into something, it doesn’t mean success is guaranteed. God’s blessing and favor are not formulas that can be solved, and His main goal for us is not to experience every success and happiness in life. The Summer Olympic Games finished just a few months ago, and for every success story and gold medal handed out, there are hundreds of athletes who went home empty handed—and not for lack of trying.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 says:

I have seen something else under the sun:

The race is not to the swift,

or the battle to the strong.

Nor does food come to the wise,

or wealth to the brilliant,

or favor to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

If only favor came to the learned, that easily, my school debts would be paid off and I could live quite comfortably. Alas, that is not how it works, and that is not how God works! So why should we even try if there is no guarantee? Watching the gymnastics Olympic Trials in July gave me a good frame of reference for these verses. There were only a handful of the best gymnasts in the country invited to try out for the Olympic Team. Of those 14 gymnasts, only five were selected. The Olympics is only every 4 years, and female gymnasts peak around 16-18 years old. That means, for most of these young ladies, this is their one shot at Olympic glory. Gymnastics is a short lived sport and athletes like Oksana Chusovitina (41 year old gymnast who has qualified and competed in 7 Olympic Games) are extremely rare. The race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong. One of the gymnasts trying out for the USA Olympic Gymnastics Team, Maggie Nichols, was still recovering from a knee surgery. When I had surgery on my knee, it took my 2 years to finally feel “normal” again. But for her, she was flipping and pushing the limits of gravity six months after surgery because her dream of being a part of the Olympic team was on the line.

And she didn’t make the team. A lifetime of hard work and sacrifice, gone.

 What Solomon is saying here is that there is no guarantee. Throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, he comments frequently that everything is “meaningless!” There is no consistent logic to life. One person beats the odds of cancer while another dies painfully, even though they receive the same treatment. A star athlete gets hurt before a big competition and fades away into obscurity, while another shoots to stardom overnight. A missionary returns from the mission field in shame after their funding runs out, while a secular, atheist businessman’s company thrives and gives the owner access to greater sins and disbelief. Time and chance happen to them all.

So we work hard, we attend Bible Studies, we do our due diligence to maintain our faith and try to take precautions against every negative thing that may happen, but it is not a guarantee that our kids will be safe and on a good path themselves. It is not a guarantee that we won’t suffer, doubt, be persecuted, or left high and dry by other Christians. Life is kind of a bummer sometimes. I had a high school teacher that used to say, “Life’s a bear, and then you get eaten by one.” I think Solomon would approve this saying. Life is hard, and our faith is not a guarantee for earthly success, because God cares more about our holiness and eternal salvation. God also is in the unique position of being able to see and know the future and how today’s triumphs and failures will affect and change us.

Shawn Johnson, America’s sweetheart star gymnast in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, came in second place in the All Around competition behind teammate Nastia Luikin. There was a so much expectation for her to win, and coming in second sent her into a tail spin that ultimately led her to the feet of Jesus. If she had won the gold, would she have ended up with the same realization of her worth and value in the eyes of her creator?

But most of us are not Olympic athletes in the spotlight, whose failures are televised and broadcast for the world to see. We are ordinary people trying to live ordinary lives, trying to make ends meet, keep it together, and hopefully be able to take that much needed vacation sometime soon. The important thing we have to remember is that we can’t pursue a relationship with Christ for the rewards or benefits, because sometimes, there aren’t any. We must pursue God because of God.

Paul says in Philippians 3:7-9

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

We have been trained to believe that losing is a bad thing. That enduring loss is traumatic and that we should try to avoid it at all costs. But Paul says he would gladly give up everything else just to know Christ. He would chose to throw everything else away—reputation, possessions, career, social status—just so that he could be found in Christ and covered by his righteousness. He didn’t even want a righteousness of his own because he knew it couldn’t compare to what Christ offered.

Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 that he trains with a purpose and a focused goal. He runs for the prize, but the prize is not a gold medal and international prestige, the prize is knowing Christ. Paul’s life is oriented towards Christ, and not towards the things of this world. Like Paul, then, we should train and learn and compete. We need to run the races, fight the battles, and pursue wisdom, education, and economic ventures. We need to attend church, read God’s word, and work on developing vibrant prayer lives. We need to compete with each other to hold us accountable to our goals and the faith we have committed to. But we do these things to know and praise God, not to be rewarded with ease, comfort, and earthly fame.

There is a purpose to losing and failing. It doesn’t mean our efforts are wasted, but that God is taking our hearts and molding them to be more like His. There is something greater at stake than earthly victory—eternal glory with our God. Will we trust him to take our losses and failure and turn them into something glorious?