Yes, we’ve all been there…watching someone win poorly…
…and watching someone lose poorly.
And it can be miserable to watch either one!
That is why a few cities have posted signs like this one…
Ha! I love this sign.
And we know it is needed because we all know “that parent” who needs reminders of how to handle himself (or herself) at the ballfield.
In fact you might even be “that parent!”
The sign is a clear reminder that our behavior speaks volumes to those around us. And here is the spiritual truth that we can connect to this ballfield sign:
“How we handle loss shows where our treasure is.”
And not just loss in a little-league ballgame, but real loss in life… loss of a job, loss of health, loss of a relationship, or the death of someone close to you. How you deal with these real losses in life – with real losing – it speaks volumes about where your treasure is. John Piper explains the idea more fully:
“What I know even more surely is that the greatest joy in God comes from giving his gifts away, not in hoarding them for ourselves. It is good to work and have. It is better to work and have in order to give. God’s glory shines more brightly when he satisfies us in times of loss than when he provides for us in times of plenty.
The health, wealth, and prosperity “gospel” swallows up the beauty of Christ in the beauty of his gifts and turns the gifts into idols. The world is not impressed when Christians get rich and say thanks to God. They are impressed when God is so satisfying that we give our riches away for Christ’s sake and count it gain.
No one ever said that they learned their deepest lessons of life, or had their sweetest encounters with God, on the sunny days. People go deep with God when the drought comes. That is the way God designed it. Christ aims to be magnified in life most clearly by the way we experience him in our losses.
Paul is our example: “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). The design of Paul’s suffering was to make radically clear for his own soul, and for ours, that God and God alone is the only treasure who lasts.
When everything in life is stripped away except God, and we trust him more because of it, this is gain, and he is glorified.”
I pray that we will trust God and keep Him as our greatest Treasure in the midst of losing any and all other things.
— brian rushing
(Quotes in today’s post are from Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper)