Everybody loves a winner. And everyone wants to be a winner. Being a winner is a slogan often used by coaches in every kind of athletics, by sales managers, advertisers, politicians and others who seek to motivate and provoke to a better effort.

When we support a team, we expect victory as the price of our interest in it. And there is certainly no virtue in defeat. Nor is it wrong to try to win. But we should learn to put things in perspective, and strive to win in those things that really matter. The football game, whether in the NFL or peewee league, is still just a game. And it is the striving that is important, not just the winning. And not all can win. If there is to be a winner, there must also be a loser. But in the greatest striving of all, everyone can be a winner!

The apostle Paul often referred to athletic events in his writings: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

But this race is not on the athletic field. It is the Christian race, and we are urged to run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith. (Hebrews 12:2). After writing of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the apostle exclaims, But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57). There are no losers here! All of us can be winners, if we are in Christ (Galatians 3:26-27). That is why Paul declares, We are more than conquerors through him who loved us (Romans 8:37)