Tag Archives: country house

day 2951: Winners and Losers

“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

It’s the time of year when Patti and I start getting excited about heading to Louisville on the first Saturday of May for the Kentucky Derby weekend.  Last year, the Derby got moved to Labor Day weekend and no fans were allowed in.  This year, I don’t get my second vaccine until three days before Derby Day so we can’t attend.  It’s a real bummer.  It got me thinking about the 2019 Derby, the last one we attended, and how for 22 minutes at the end of the race, those who had bet on the favorite, Maximum Security thought they were winners, only to have Maximum Security disqualified and Country House, the 65-1 odds long shot named the winner. For 22 minutes a lot of people thought they were winners, only to find out that they weren’t. And so it is in business and life.  We might sit at the top of the heap for a time, almost appearing to be unassailable, only to find our lead gone, maybe to never return.  Intel is going through that right now and retooling management, product, technology, etc. to see if they can regain their winning position.  Net, winning doesn’t come with a guarantee.

Consider that for three days after the death of Jesus, those who wanted Him to die felt like they had won. The Disciples and the followers of Jesus felt defeated and lost.  And then on the third day, the final result was revealed and we know the rest of the story.  Ironically, those who never believed that Jesus rose again, nor that He was the true Messiah may have gone to their own graves feeling as if they won, only to find out in eternity that their prolonged “winning” was instead an eternal.  We should know by now that there is no consistent winning in life, other than in the following of Jesus.  All the rest that we are working so hard for can be taken from us at any moment so lets be sure that we place our full life’s wager with Christ.

Reference: Romans 10:9 (New Living Translation)