Last Place Winners

Do you know why the Bible says, “My flesh and heart may fail… BUT God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever?”

 

Because our flesh and heart *CAN* fail.

Because our flesh and heart *WILL* fail.

 

Sometimes, we forget this and think we will endure trials with all of our ego and confidence still unharmed and intact. Sometimes, we think victory is defined by our ability to emerge unscathed or to win, be crowned, applauded for our triumph. Not true.

Sometimes, victory looks like beat up, broken, weary people dragging themselves to His feet, to lay. Sometimes, victory is won on our knees and on our faces, bowed very, very low.

 

An embarrassing number of times, I’ve cried out from the ground to the scoffers, mockers, and laughing passers, “This IS me winning!” I know it looks like defeat and loss. Hey, I’ll do you one better and admit it feels a lot like defeat and loss. But His economy is upside down, why wouldn’t His races be as well? Believers win differently.

We win in surrender, in silence, and in solitude. We win by waiting on the Lord.

 

There is no podium at the end of a Believer’s race.

Only a throne.

And only HE sits upon it.

Yes, God IS the strength of our heart and portion forever—”even in” failed flesh, “in spite of” our failed hearts.

 

Our bodies may indeed be broken, fallen, and failed.

Our flesh? Our heart? Along with our guts—every instinct to defend ourselves, be courageous and resolute in our strength—gone.  Confidence, our desire to prevail over adversity, the desire to control chaos and circumstances for ourselves and others will be dimmed all the way to dark.

It will fail.

It will all fail.

It needs to fail. Endurance apart from Him must be wrecked and ruined. For our good and His glory, all notions of victory apart from HIM, must fail.

 

He is our strength WHEN they fail. And sometimes it requires their failure for us to recognize this. Sometimes, it requires failure to be humbled, to ask for His strength, and to receive it gladly.

 

He is the God of exhausted measures.

He is the God of unfinished work and failed things.

He is the God of the last picked and the last placed.

This is where He shines. And He will shine through you, too.

Ignore the ribbon. Run for Him and to Him alone.