DEFEAT HELPS KEEP LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”  (Philippians 2:3-4 NIV)

If we win all the time -- or if we think we're winning when in fact we're not, for sometimes we fool ourselves -- the elements of life get out of proportion.  As a matter of fact, we need an occasional defeat to help us remember that God is God. Many people in public life -- especially entertainers, athletes, and politicians -- come to believe their own press releases and to think they're above the rules of ordinary human beings.  Wealth does the same thing to many people.

What happens in these more prominent positions happens also at every other level of life.  We see it on the playground, at the community club, in the classroom, and, saddest of all, in the family circle.  It's painful to see someone broken by defeat, but sometimes it is the most important experience a person will ever have.

It can be hard to know God if we're so enchanted with our own successes that we become unduly fascinated with ourselves. 

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in “If Experience Is Such a Good Teacher Why Do I Keep Repeating the Course?” 

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