Moral Victories and Good Losses

Yesterday I went and watched my old high school play football in the second round of state playoffs. It was freezing cold, the popcorn was sub-par, and the loss was brutal. As I was leaving the game I heard another well meaning Vandal fan say it was a good loss since we made it out of the first round and got beat by a great team; which had not been done in years.

It reminded me of a press conference I watched a few years ago. USC had just come back and beat Notre Dame in the final seconds by a last ditch QB sneak ran by Matt Lienart. It was the year that So Call would lose to Texas in the National championship and many were calling an upset for this game and Notre Dame almost pulled it off. Durning the post game conference Charlie Weiss said,"If your waiting for me to say this was a good loss than your going to be waiting a long time." My thoughts exactly on moral victories and a so called good losses.

Surgeon once stated something to the effect that he could imagine a Christian sharing their faith consistently and not getting anywhere, but he couldn't imagine someone doing so and being satisfied. I think as Christians we all too often buy into moral victories in our faith because we had the right intnetions. We say I meant to have quite time, but then I fell asleep, at lease I had good intentions. I wanted to get more involved in that ministry, but I didn't get around to it. I wanted to be a Godly father or husband but I just couldn't get all the right pieces together at the same time. But then we claim at least we had the right intentions which is more than most the world has. That does not cut it!

I myself come home far too many nights and think to myself, "I was going to share my faith with the chasier at Starbucks (or wherever else I went where I was surrouned by lost people) but I just didn't get the chance. The list goes on in ways we left ourselves off the hook on spritual issues because we had the right intentions or mindset but just didn't get the job done.

We are either in a growing relationship with Christ or we're not. We are either plugged into the ministies at our church and engageing in Kingdom work or we're not. We're either taking people to Jesus or we're not. Lives are being changed or they are not. In regards to our personal faith and it's outward impact on the world around us we're either taking care of buisness or we're not. The best laid plans and good intentions don't hack it. When Kingdom work and souls are on the line there is no such thing as a moral victory or good loss.