Wins and Losses

If your worth rides on your work, every win goes straight to your head, and every loss goes straight to your heart. A good quarter makes you feel ten feet tall. A bad one makes you wonder who you are.

Proverbs says praise is a test. “As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.” Success heats us up and shows what we are made of, just as much as failure does. Many people handle a loss better than a win.

Paul learned to stay steady through both. “I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” His secret is in the next line: Christ was his strength in both.

So celebrate your wins and grieve your losses. Just don’t let either one tell you who you are. That has already been settled in Christ.