UNPACK this...Struggling With SelfishnessSýnishorn

When Losing Leads To Winning

A few years ago, the Philadelphia 76ers’ management decided to trade away veteran players for draft picks and young players. They planned to field a team that would allow them to lose a lot of games and ultimately lead to a better chance of drafting a top prospect. 

This type of strategy hasn’t always been supported by fans and media, but the 76ers stayed the course and did an outstanding job of losing - over 60 games! 

As a result, the team won the lottery for the #1 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft and drafted future All-Star, Ben Simmons, while eventually becoming a consistent playoff team.

The idea of a team choosing to lose in sports seems pretty perplexing at first, but once seeing how losing leads to winning,  the benefit becomes evident.

Jesus speaks about a similar philosophy that sounds confusing at first until we realize what He's offering. He says in Matthew 10:39, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” 

In other words, as we begin to lose ourselves, we begin to win in life now and for eternity. By surrendering our selfish desires and trusting in Jesus, we discover that true life is found in Him. 

This same verse puts it another way in The Message: “If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to Me, you’ll find both yourself and Me.” 

We can easily get caught up in the pursuit of winning, based on what the world tells us is most important in life, but Jesus tells us to give up on trying to do it our own way and lose that life.

Although choosing to lose something is never easy, once we start seeing that it leads to God’s best for us, we will realize it is totally worth the victory we experience. 

I’m Bryce Johnson and you can UNPACK that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, forgive me for my selfish decisions and for trying to find life apart from You. Please teach me to lose myself so that I can find You, and truly live for Your sake and Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.