A Win Is A Win

I caught yesterday’s last few minutes of the latest Mariners baseball game as they celebrated a win. Out of 162 games they will play in a typical season (without playoff appearances), you know the adage will always be heard:

You win some, and you lose some.

To get to the playoffs, you must be a winner! Equally, someone else must be the loser. To advance your game against a proponent, you are hoping to be victorious over them. You win; they lose. They don’t have to lose to you but lose they must. To win the pennant, you must win in that final playoff appearance.

To be a winner, you must be playing to win.

“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.”
~Babe Ruth

Winning, though often thought to be about the individual, it’s truly about the team, as in, “There’s no ‘I’ in the word team.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes to win games,
whether it’s sitting on a bench waving a towel,
handing a cup of water to a teammate,
or hitting the game-winning shot.”
~Kobe Bryant

An Unbidden Thought, I Think

This thought came unbidden, and I’m not sure why it showed up. Well, maybe I do know. Watching the Mariners celebrate, you would have thought they won the greatest game of their life. All the dancing, laughing, glad-handing, and smiles made me feel sorry for the losers. Almost. I want the Mariners to win over others, so I must accept the victory celebration as done by those who play the game.

Not all wins are celebrated victoriously in the hallways of life. Some are silently noted as the real world passes you by. Some are clanged loudly, as in Cancer wards where you ring a bell to note your victory over a deadly disease, but others still lose the fight. Wins are not just ponderously huge. They are also those tiny silent moments where you acknowledge a victory.

Perhaps the best way to celebrate a win is to enjoy the moment yourself. Get the private victory march out of the way and then keep moving forward. To celebrate and then quit? That’s not winning. To quit without even trying? That’s giving up before you even know if a victory is possible.

Somewhere in the past, we started adding Cheerleaders into the mix. If not on the sidelines, then at least through the speakers with an organ playing our way, hopefully, into the victory ring. Why? I’m not sure! It’s almost as if we need someone to get the crowd in the mood for sock ’em good time! Then the players will feel the crowd’s energy and turn on the juice!

Rock ’em! Sock ’em! Knock ’em Dead!
Come on, team! Let’s put ’em to bed!

I Wonder

Can a team, or player, win successfully without a crowd or cheers? Can you win without a crowd?

Back in those ol’ pandemic days, they would amp up recorded crowd noises in pro football games to simulate the good ol’ days. It was corny. They would even fill the seats with cardboard cutouts of attendees to make the stands look full. (We did something similar at church, and it made me feel better when preaching because I saw my congregation even though I was preaching to an online audience.)

Do we need someone up front cheering us forward? I wonder.
Do we need all that sound coursing through the room, so we feel like “we are there?” I wonder.

What if we learned to be involved without depending on the cheerleaders we put up with? That’s a big if…I wonder if it can be done?

Where Am I Going?

What if…

• What if we go to church to worship and there are no worship leaders on the platform? Can we worship? It’s easier to worship together, but do I need someone at the front singing to me?
• What if we gather to hear the preacher, but there’s no one on the platform? Can we get something from the Word of God? It’s good to enjoy others’ presence, but I wonder how much we’ve staged this event.
• Do we need someone in front of us singing, preaching, teaching, praying, and worshipping before we can accept that we are at an event and not just listening to the audio en masse?
• Can we celebrate without being in person? Can we be fed The Word without joining the crowd?
• If we are in attendance and not drawn into the moment, are we spectators to something that could easily be called a performance?

I submit to you this thought. We are not solitary creatures that celebrate wins in a corner. Our psyche is to celebrate together. Else, why go to Times Square on New Year’s Eve or watch a “reality skills” show to root for a winner with the rest of the nation? Else, why celebrate birthdays or anniversaries?

We do better together than when apart.
If that takes someone leading the moment, so be it.

Sermon on the Mount

In his foundational teaching that set the stage for his ministry, Jesus gave us what is later called The Sermon on the Mount. It’s chock full of nuggets and themes to get our heads and hearts right with living during our times – no matter which century we live through. He spoke as one having authority! (Matthew 7:28-29)

It’s a shame the sermon is contrived as being chapters or verses when it’s perhaps a single message that should be a book in and of itself.

Midway through (Matthew 6), Jesus told us to go to our storeroom (closet) to pray in secret, and the Lord will reward us openly. When you give to the needy or fast, do it out of the limelight. Don’t let your deeds or sacrifice be witnessed by others who may want to congratulate you for doing what you chose to do. Do it quietly, almost secretly. That’s a win!

Maybe we won’t understand it all until we get to the ending.

Listen to the revelation of Jesus Christ as presented by John in the last book of my bible. After John witnesses the prophecy in its entirety, he finds himself face down to worship the angel that revealed to him the final view in Revelation 21-22.

Now I, John, saw and heard these things.
And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship
before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.
Then he said to me,
“See that you do not do that.
For I am your fellow servant,
and of your brethren the prophets,
and of those who keep the words of this book.
Worship God.”
Revelation 22:8-9 NKJV

It’s an angel that points me in this direction from the revelation given to John. Worship God. We are not here to worship the worshippers and celebrate the preachers and teachers. Our goal is to Worship God.

Perhaps this is the biggest win of our life.

Worship God.