Winning and losing are tricky words to define. Because wherever you end with one you must begin the other. And that works both ways.
The winners of the world have built their lives, and entire industries, on their path to apparent success. Which thereby also defines the losers. I’m not meaning to say that the winners are wrong, only that their definition of winning—which is also probably mine and yours, if we’re really honest—is biased against the actual reality of the universe.
I say that our common definitions of winning and losing are based against reality for two reasons.
First, such definitions are arbitrary by nature. They are culturally defined, and thus can vary widely, even among subcultures within the same broader culture. So winning or losing in a skewed reality is not truly winning or losing—it’s only the perception of winning or losing.
Second, as a Christian, if I take my cues on reality from Jesus, then I have to reckon with the fact that something is dramatically different in how he defined winning and losing. More than that, if I take seriously his claims that losing is actually a prerequisite for winning, then perhaps the sting of losing can be lessened, or even eliminated.
Or maybe being concerned with those definitions isn’t really helpful to begin with.
