TO LOSE IS TO GAIN

Ecclesiastes 3:6   A time to get, and a time to lose….

I read a label on a new COCA COLA can that said ALL I CAN DO IS WIN!

In the economy of God, to go up is to go down…you become weak to become strong… you become empty to become full… To lose is to gain.

   We live in a culture where we are taught all about winning, yet much of our lives is spent dealing with loss in one way or another. The loss of our youth- loss of relationships, loss of finances, loss of health loss through death and the list could go on and on. Incidentally, the tools for dealing with loss aren’t nearly as plentiful as the tools for learning to win and succeed. I don’t think we have a very good theology on loss. We have such a competitive mentality in our world. We think we’ve just got to win, we’ve got to be first.

We have a great theology on how to win, but not how to lose. We as adults need to be better at teaching our children the reality of loss. It’s a broken world. We need to be able to deal with both triumph and defeat and treat both the same. This old gospel song says it so well….I LOST IT ALL TO FIND EVERYTHING. I DIED A PAUPER TO BE BORN A KING. WHEN I LEARNED HOW TO LOSE, I FOUND HOW TO WIN, I LOST IT ALL TO FIND EVERYTHNG.

If our faith is based on winning all the time we eventually run into big trouble. A belief system that insists God’s will for our lives never involves loss, will inevitably break down at some point and then what? Loss is part of living in a fallen world. This is a reality! This is the beautiful thing about loss, it drives us to trust! Loss however difficult, moves us to a place where we must depend on God at a level we could never otherwise understand.