Losing 4 - nil? Losers become winners

One Sunday morning, a little while ago, my friend, Andy, told me about a dream he had recently had. He was watching a game of football. The two teams were not well matched and one was losing badly (4 – nil). Suddenly, in the middle of the game, the manager of the losing team raced onto the pitch and enthusiastically encouraged each member of his team in turn with the words: ‘You’re great!’  The game turned and the losers played so well that they thrashed the winning team 5-4!

The dream carried an important message: ‘Encourage and affirm people even when they are not doing well! Losers can become winners!’

Mmmm … I like that dream … it made me think. And, actually it’s been my job for the last 11 years, backing losers, but …... I believe in it anyway. (I’m an adult literacy teacher.)

A large group of Slovakians come to the ‘ESOL for work class’ at Coventry Jesus Centre; one of these is Viktor. (I never use real names.) Well, he’s got a slight learning difficulty and he sometimes just gets the wrong end of the stick and enthusiastically plunges in head first with a way off answer. Sadly I noticed some of his friends laugh at him: I find that a bit distressing; it pains me inside and, because of that, I always go out of my way to encourage him. Well, it’s bearing fruit because he’s so eager now about learning and is keen to work at his reading and writing as well as speaking, which we have mainly concentrated on up to now and, guess what? Do you know, he actually seems to have improved more than his friends. I feel, well, happy .. another loser become a winner.

Jesus backed losers: poor stinking Lazarus, lying at Dives’ gate, dogs licking his sores, begging for his living, his existence actually ….. somehow, Jesus saw something really good in him; perhaps within his destitution, he honoured and loved God and when he died - I don’t know …but wow! There he is, lying in Abraham’s lap, secure, comforted, loved, honoured… Women were generally losers in those days; after all, what about that prostitute who, uninvited, sneaked into a grand dinner at Simon’s house and won Jesus’ highest praise by, in the most undignified way, weeping on Him and then wiping up the splodgy mess she’d made with what?  - Her hair! And then, to add to it all, poured ointment over them (probably made a right mess on the floor too) … she was a loser who became a winner … see next blog.