Attitude

Rom.12:2 (Voice) “Do not allow this world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind. As a result, you will be able to discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete.”

Gary Player, a world champion in golf, shared an experience. He said he was practising in a bunker down in Texas when an old man stopped to watch. He said his first shot went into the hole. And the man said, “You got fifty bucks if you knock the next one in.” He said so he holed the next one. Then the man offered him lets say a hundred dollars if he holes the next one. The ball went in, the third time in a row and the man said, “Boy, I have never seen anyone so lucky in my life.” Gary Player shouted back, “Well, the harder I practice, the luckier I get.”

I have found Gary Player’s quote to be true because the more I prepare, the more confident I am to play a game and the ‘luckier’ I get at my games. Defeat may sometimes happen, but now I look forward to the next win. I enjoy winning. If you say that you do not want to be defeated, so you do not enter the game you can never win. Some people do not want to be defeated so they never play. Similarly, some people do not take risks in business because they do not want to lose money. They sit on the money, it gets devalued, and nothing happens. But God is saying to us in Rom.12:2 “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think…” (emphasis added). 

The custom of this world when it comes to defeat is, to feel embarrassed. God says you and I are not to copy the custom of this world. When you have that feeling of being defeated, God says do not be embarrassed. Do not go and hide in the corner. My grandmother would say, behave like a man and shake it off. The world’s response to defeat is to be embarrassed and God says do not copy their behaviour. When the average, natural human being is defeated, they get embarrassed and hide. God says do not hide. The natural response is to rush to a pacifier. We all have pacifiers so do not think it is only babies that have pacifiers.

When married couples feel defeated, they use pacifiers as a weapon against their spouses. It is their own way of pacifying the feeling of defeat. God says do not do it because that is what the world does. The ‘silent treatment’ pacifier for example; ignoring your spouse as if he or she does not exist. Even when they try to talk to you, you look through them. God says do not do it! That is not how champions behave and you have to begin to behave like a champion.

Prayer: Father, I ask for the grace not to respond to defeat as the world does but to respond by letting it propel me to be better equipped to win, in Jesus Name. Amen!