Not to Lose

 February 28, 2023

Last Saturday, Linda and I watched our granddaughter Eliza’s boy’s indoor soccer team play the game that would determine the championship for the league (Yes, she’s good enough to play on the boy’s team). They had a disastrous first half, as their opponents took an early lead that ballooned to 5-1 by the end of the half. It was painful to watch.

I don’t know what their coach said to them at the halftime break, but they came out a different team, evening the score at 6-6 at the end. Now it was sudden death, and they lobbed one past the opposing goalie about two minutes in to win the championship.

Talking with Denny, her other grandfather as we left the Y, he commented, “the other team started playing not to lose instead of playing to win.” His words have stuck with me ever since, and came to mind at our pastor’s prayer time this morning. I was a few minutes late, and came in as they were talking about the Satan’s clubs that are starting to spring up throughout the state in local highschools. We were cautioned against going global over the rumors of one starting in Jamestown, as it’s surmised that the tactic is to get Christians to oppose such a club so that such opposition could be used against Christians clubs as well.

Denny’s words kept ringing in my ears. Too often we Christians play and pray “not to lose.” We engage ideas and ideology from a reactionary position instead of being proactive. We fear losing the privileges we’ve enjoyed in this republic of ours, and go to all sorts of lengths to maintain our standing in society. We are playing “not to lose.” The early church by contrast, had no such privilege to lose. They were a minority, mostly poverty-stricken and lower class, often of the slave population. But they saw life differently than we often do.

In the book of Hebrews, we read about Jesus, 

“You [God] have put all things in subjection under his feet.” For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.” —Hebrews 2:8-9 

If all we do is look around us, like the author of these words, “we do not yet see all things put under him.” It looks as if the devil and the world are winning. By almost any metric we can cite, evil comes out on top. But that is only true if we only look where the world wants us to look. It’s the next sentence that is important here: “But we see Jesus…” Where we look determines how we play the game, and even how we pray the game. So often, our prayers take on a defensive mode: “Lord, protect us from the evil… Deliver us from trouble…” We pray as we think, and we think as we see, and we aren’t seeing Jesus, “crowned with glory and honor.”

Denny’s observation wasn’t just about our granddaughter’s soccer game; it’s a warning for life: “Don’t play to not lose.” Play and pray the victory promised through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, now crowned with glory and honor.” We are playing, not to lose, but to win, because in Christ, we already have.