Learning to Lose In Order to Recover

One day someone dropped a sunflower seed.

Or maybe a bird lost it.

And out of the pile of dirt in which it landed grew this incredible sunflower that Jonathan found one day as he was at work. He took a picture of it for me. 

He said he figured I could use it on my blog!

Somebody had to lose something in this pile of dirt in order to gain this sunflower, heavy with seeds.

And every one of these pumpkins that Jonathan picked up at Walmart for 1 cent apiece were       once a seed lost in a pile of dirt.

And maybe you feel like you've been lost in a pile of dirt.
Maybe you've lost in a disagreement; maybe you've lost credibility;
maybe you've lost financially.
maybe you feel like your reputation is lost with some people in a pile of dirt from someone's smear campaign.
Maybe you just feel lost and confused.

I read something the other day that could be a glimmer of light at the end of your long tunnel.

It said,

         "Learn to lose in order to recover."

 "Learn to lose."

You don't have to win all the time.

 Losing doesn't necessarily mean you were wrong.
Maybe you were, but maybe you weren't.
Maybe you missed a good ball--but maybe the pitcher made a poor pitch.

Maybe you were wrong in some things, but right in others.
Only perfectionists have to be right all the time.
The rest of us just have to be humble. 

The rest of us just have to overcome when we lose.

We have to overcome evil with good.

You just have to grow up out of the dirt and head toward the sunshine again and bloom
and bear fruit.  

"Learn to lose in order to recover," that quote said.
"and remember
                                           that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain."  

Maybe we think we have to win in a situation in order to recover from it.
Maybe we think we have to come out on top.

The other person has to agree,
or apologize
or understand
or start approving of us.
In other words, we have to be right and they have to be wrong.
Yay! We win!

Well, what if they don't???
What if they are sure it is we who were wrong and they were right and don't you ever forget it?
What if we can't stop hurting?

"Learn to lose in order to recover."  

It's amazing how the broken, the simple, and the scorned can teach us lessons,

even as this rooster with the broken leg taught us that even 

 brokenness can turn into a gift for others.

This rooster got stepped on and he just plain had to accept that he had lost in the situation.
He had to accept that truth in order to recover.
He could have kept fighting and strutting around like usual, but his leg wouldn't have healed.
He had to stop and rest and accept reality
and heal.
The young chicks find this otherwise rather cocky rooster a wonderful father to provide security and to cuddle up to!

A dear Indian brother in Christ from Gospel to Asia once wrote,
"It is better to be humble than to be right."

                     Learn to lose in order to recover.  It is better to be humble than to be right.

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