Winners and Losers

Winners and Losers

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

            Perhaps you’ve seen the sign in offices or other places where you do business.  It reads:  “I never make misteaks!”

            Oh, if only it were true!  Over the years I’ve made so many misteaks—sorry, mistakes—that sometimes I think I’ve got a corner on them.

            But I’m not alone.  Look at the records of some of the greatest baseball players of all time.

·        Babe Ruth—714 homeruns in his career; for 39 years a record.  He also struck out 1,330 times.

·        Ty Cobb—held the record for most stolen bases until 1982.  He also held the record for being thrown out the most times:  38 in 1915.

·        Cy Young—the man for whom the outstanding pitcher award is named.  He holds the record for most lifetime wins:  511.  He also holds the record for losses:  313.

·        Hank Aaron—the man who broke Babe Ruth’s home run record with 755.  Aaron also holds the record for hitting into the most double plays.

·        Walter Johnson—until recently held the record for most batters struck out by a pitcher.  He also holds the record for hitting the most batters:  204.

·        Roberto Clemente—struck out four times in one All-Star game, still a record.

·        Sandy Koufax—pitched four no-hitters in his career but couldn’t hit the ball.  He holds the record for striking out the most times in succession:  12.

·        Reggie Jackson—Mr. October.  Clutch hitter extraordinaire.  Struck out 2,000 times in his career—the equivalent of striking out every time at bat for four full seasons.

            Still feeling badly about the number of mistakes you make?  An excellent hitter in baseball bats somewhere around .300-.330 for a season.  That means he makes an out more than two-thirds of the time he’s at the plate.

            When I was beginning my ministry someone said to me, “God doesn’t expect us to be successful.  God expects us to be faithful.”  In their own way, each of the above players was faithful.  Each one kept on going to the plate—or to the mound—inning after inning, day after day, season after season.  In the end, each was considered a star because he kept playing, kept hitting well or pitching well, and did so faithfully throughout his career—even when things weren’t going well!  Imagine what might have happened if one (or more) of them had quit after the first time he struck out, or lost a game!  We would probably not even remember his name.  Certainly he would have never appeared in the record book.

            There is a wonderful story about Robert the Bruce, the great Scottish leader.  He had just been badly defeated in battle for the sixth time, and had fled to a cave where he sat, alone and depressed.  He watched as a spider tried to string a line to begin a web.  Time after time the spider failed, and time after time he tried again.  On the seventh time he was successful.  Robert took the lesson into his next battle and won.

We are indeed jars of clay—with feet of clay.  We cannot be successful all the time in this Christian life; but God doesn’t expect us to be.  We fail and try again, fail and try again, until with God’s help we succeed.  This is how we win at being a Christian, not by being perfect—we can’t ever achieve that level—but by trying, and trying, and trying again, until we overcome the clay which holds us back and win the reward that God holds in store for us.

Don’t worry about being successful.  Just be faithful.