After a recent soccer game, in an incredulous, almost exasperated voice, Lydia asked her mother, “Can you believe what our coach said to us?” “What?” asked her mother. “He said, ‘How does it feel to lose?’” She continued her passionate soliloquy, as if to set the record straight once and for all, saying, “We don’t care! Stop talking to us like we are adults! We don’t care if we lose!” Quite an insight for a kindergartner! Has she observed something in adults that is absent in her peers?
Once again the disciples were arguing about who is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They were obsessed with being number one—with winning the battle for supremacy. We, too, are often obsessed with being number one. Winning in athletic competition. Winning in scholastic achievement. Winning in personal relationships. Winning at work. Doing our best is admirable. But, is winning everything?
After setting a child before the disciples, Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 18:3). Children don’t care who is the greatest—they don’t care if they lose. Humility is the trait Jesus admired in children. This is the trait Jesus encourages in His disciples (vs. 4). It is with this trait that Jesus opened the Sermon on the Mount, saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 5:3). Happiness is found in unexpected places. The Beatitudes is a series of startling contrasts designed to remind us of our need to take a second look at life. We empty in order to fill. We die in order to live. We lose in order to win.
Opportunities abound for a disciple who is willing to lose. Regarding others as more important than ourselves and looking out for their best interests is what it means to follow the example of our Lord (Ph. 2:3-4 cf. 5-8). We need to be reminded that winning isn’t everything. Set your sights on being like a child. May we be so earnest in our spiritual growth as to be able to say, “We don’t care if we lose!”