Winning is everything?

“Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”

                                                                                    Vince Lombardi

By the end of tonight’s Super Bowl, someone is going to win and someone is going to lose. Few though will remember the losing team. It’s a winner takes all world. That’s even though the 2^nd place team made it all the way to “The Game of Games” but they just didn’t win the final prize.

  Our culture is addicted to success, yet very few are ultimately successful. Consider sports. While everyone makes the team in grade school, fewer make it even in high school. Your abilities have to be in the top percentile to make it to a college team and those percentages dramatically drop to make it in professional sports. That analogy holds true in every field and category of life. Few will make it to team lead or branch manager and even fewer to VP, President, or CEO, particularly of a large corporation.

  Yet, it doesn’t matter where you work or what you do, if you’re a homemaker or a retiree, we tend to be addicted to success. It can be things as innocuous as tic-tac-toe, receiving public recognition for a job well done, or even how many likes your post on social media receives.

  Executive Coach, Katy Trost, developed 7 markers to use to evaluate yourself on whether you’re addicted to success: *You find purpose in achievement. *The expectations you have for yourself are way higher than average. *You ask yourself what else is there to life? *You measure your self-worth through your achievements. *You’re at the peak of your professional life but don’t feel fulfilled. *You’re very results-driven but you don’t feel content. *You’re constantly tense.

  Recently, I finished, When Pride Still Matters – A Life of Vince Lombardi. It’s a must read for every Packer fan. The candor of the author, David Maraniss, was refreshing.

  Growing up in poverty in an Italian family in Brooklyn, Lombardi wasn’t a fantastic player. Where he truly began to shine and showed his genius was in coaching. It’s why he’s been lionized by fans and former players.

  Yet, Lombardi was far from successful as a husband and father. When his famous book, Run to Daylight, came out in 1963, it was jokingly suggested it be called “SHUT UP, MARIE!” 

  Though he and his wife, Marie, began madly in love, she couldn’t compete with Lombardi’s greater love – football. They’re constant fights and bickering were legendary. It was a miserable marriage with Marie ultimately succumbing to alcoholism

  When Marie announced her desire to marry Lombardi, her status-conscious stockbroker father didn’t like the idea of his daughter marrying the son of an Italian butcher from Brooklyn, a prejudice Lombardi faced much of his life. Yet, he and Marie nonetheless wed on August 31, 1940.

  But even on their honeymoon, Lombardi was preoccupied with football and cut it short to be able to get back to his assistant coaching job.

  His two children never lived up to his expectations and suffered throughout their adulthood because of it. His players were more like his sons than his own son, Vince Jr.

  It’s very easy to be seduced by success. Nearly all of us struggle with it at some level. True success, God’s standard of success, is centered on obedience to and glorification of God (Rom. 13:14; Gal. 5:16). Success is first obedience to God, empowered by His Spirit, motivated by love for God, and directed toward the advancement of the kingdom of God.

  The Bible teaches that success begins in our closest circle of relationships – our spouse and our children. Those relationships are so important, failing in either of those spheres is a disqualification for vocational ministry.

  Please understand, one can be a successful Christ-honoring spouse without having a successful marriage. The same is true of parenting. We are to be obedient to the Lord and live out godliness in our area of responsibility, even if our spouse or children do not.

  For example, John Wesley was faithful to the Lord and greatly used by God though he had a miserable marriage. Many a parent has sought to honor the Lord yet had a child who rebelled and later repudiated everything their parents had sought to instill in them about God and in the home. Often we forget that the very first father with rebellious children was God.

  What is success? What is true winning? It’s boils down to living for an Audience of One. Every Christian can be successful because every Christian can choose to do that. It’s choosing by God’s grace to live out Colossians 3:17; “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

  To live for an audience of one means that I have to stop thinking about what’s good for me and how to make myself look better in the eyes of others, or how I can get ahead in this world. Instead I must focus on living for and pleasing God. It means waking up every morning and dedicating the day, the schedule, the pain and problems, the hopes and dreams of my life to God. It means going to bed at night thanking God for everything that has happened and asking Him to shape the day to come. It means setting godly priorities for my life and committing my marriage, my family, my job, my free time, my rest and my reflection all to God. It means seeking to truly live for God alone. 

  On one occasion when he was asked why he was not offended by a vicious attack from a fellow Member of Parliament, Winston Churchill replied, “If I respected him, I would care about his opinion. But I don’t, so I don’t.” In the same way, we who live before the Audience of One can say to the world: “I have only one audience. Before you I have nothing to prove, nothing to gain, nothing to lose.” Winning is everything and the only thing if you win where it matters…with your Heavenly Father!

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.