"For the just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again."
- Proverbs 24:16
Very often life can throw us unexpected curves where we wind up getting hit on our blind side. That is never a comfortable feeling. I'm sure you are very much like me, you don't like losing. However, whether we like it or not losing is a part of life. We are not always going to win, but failing to win is never the criterion in determining who we are. Who we are is what is built into our character. And to become an achiever we have know how to balance our drive and determination with the discipline of never giving up.
The Bible is filled with individuals who got knocked down but never stayed down. They got right back up again. This isn't something you "will" to do. It is something that is built into you because of a resolve of heart. It doesn't matter what the odds are or how difficult the task may be, those who refuse to be defined by setbacks of logjams in life are winners at heart.
Reggie Jackson played baseball for the New York Yankees during the 1977 World Series. Most people don't know it, but Reggie is the all time leading strikeout player in the history of the game. But that is not what most folks think about when his name is mentioned. What they mostly remember is how he helped his team win the World Series by hitting three homeruns on three consecutive at bats in game six. Because of his achievement he earned the nickname, "Mr. October." His identity was not based on being the strikeout king, but by a moment in history where he defied the odds.
The apostle Paul is a great Biblical example of someone who was checkered with lost, but made his mark in history. Here is an individual who set out on his very first missionary trip into the region of Galatia only to find himself thrust out of a city called Lystra, having been stoned. The scripture says they supposed him to be dead, "...howbeit as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up!" (Acts 14:19).
There are very few people who would have done what Paul did. On the very next day, instead of cowering under the pressure he "...departed with Barnabas to Derbe, and when they had preached the gospel to that city, they returned again to Lystra" (Acts 14:21). In other words, Paul went right back into the same city where he was stoned refusing to accept defeat!
I love this man's resolve. Acts chapter twenty gives us a picture of what made him who he was. He said, "And now behold, I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, except that the Holy Spirit witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and affliction are waiting me...but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:22, 24).
In his letter to the Corinthians he records a list of his many setbacks: "in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep..." (2 Cor. 11:23-27). He goes on to list several other hardships, but in the end Paul never let what he had to go through deter his faith. He was able to maintain his drive and determination because he disciplined himself never to quit, never to give up, and never to judge his life or ministry by his losses!
Some of the most constructive people in the world are not those who have never experienced lost, but are people who chose never to quit! If failure frightens you then you have determined your own limitations, but if you will believe beyond any setback or difficulty you face in life then your attitude will enable you to set your own bar!
Think about this: Paul was in a prison, arrested for his faith, and yet pens these words, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13). How could he be so optimistic when his current situation seemed so dismal? It's because he learned a valuable aspect of being an achiever. He learned that, "in whatever condition I find myself in, I have learned to live independent of the circumstances" (Phil 4:11).
If you can acquire a heart that maintains a winning attitude, even in the face of defeat, your circumstances will never dictate your sense of being. You will always find a way of getting back up again because you will never let losing turn you into a loser!*
