Losing with dignity

I am told that it is important to know how to lose with dignity. This is called sportsmanship. I understand the concept, but the problem is that I really hate losing. I can put on a good face but in reality I despise every part of it.

I hate losing when I’m playing a game. I hate when the team I”m rooting for loses.

If you have been following along you know I’m a big OU fan. You should also know that they went to the NCAA National Championship game again this year. Actually it is impressive the number of times they have been to the big game since Stoops took over. A total of 5 trips in 10 years but only one win. That is beyond frustrating. I can’t just smile and shake someone’s hand. It makes me ill to lose.

In college I took racquetball for a required PE credit. I am competitive and pushed myself despite being severely overweight at the time. The coach insisted on pairing the better players with the worse players for doubles to “even the odds.” I hated it. I was yelling at one of the guys I was paired with because, despite being in much better shape than me, he would stroll around the court generally getting in my way and causing us to lose. His response, “chill man it is just a game.” Sure it might be a game but I want to win. More than that we are graded on how we play and I want an “A.” He was costing me two wins.

The fact is that I desire to win, and I think it is a good thing to be honest. Sure we teach kids that they should be happy to play. they have entire leagues that won’t even keep score so no one will have their feelings hurt, but in the real world we are playing a game and it is not something we can afford to lose.

I look at the church in America and most Christians think that there is no score at the end of the game. They forget that we are in a race to the finish, and quite frankly there is no second place. We must push on because the prize is our very soul, and the soul of everyone around us.

I hate to lose and I hate to see people lose. That is my passion. It is the passion that will drive me and the passion that will keep me. It is the reason I get up and preach when I’m sick and tired of telling people the same thing to watch them not listen all over again. I know that if I keep pushing and praying then eventually someone will respond and we can push together. I know that this is how the world is changed, by people who hate to lose and don’t believe it is possible to lose with dignity.

I’m sorry if you are offended by this idea, but losing shouldn’t have dignity. It should make you ill so you do better the next time. When you accept the idea of loss you will no longer care. Look around you. Tell me that we, as Americans, haven’t lowered the bar because we generally believe that losing is dignified. Now read your Bible and tell me that God has ever considered for one moment that a loss is acceptable.

Sin is a loss and He doesn’t accept it. He expect us to achieve perfection. That is the standard. Sure we will fail but perfection is so important to Him that He gave His only son, the one who did live a perfect life, so that we could have the opportunity to win. Are we going to toss that sacrifice aside and wonder aimlessly into hell with all our friends, or are we going to fight with our very last breath to win and bring as many with us as we can?

Personally, I hate losing so I plan on winning.