“But whatever gains I had, these I have come to consider a loss because of Christ. More than that, I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ…” Philippians 3: 7-8
Still complaining about daylight savings time? I still see people on facebook or hear people in person who say they have still not recovered from losing that one hour of sleep last Sunday morning. Really? I bet there are plenty of days that we waste a good hour’s worth of sleep watching TV, going on-line or watching movies. I bet there are plenty of times that we could’ve had more sleep had we not had homework to finish, sick children to take care or bad dreams that woke us up. And there are certainly plenty of times we voluntarily give up that hour of sleep to spend time with friends or family playing games or talking. The issue really isn’t losing that hour of sleep. The issue is what do we gain by losing that hour?
So often in life we measure things in losses. How much did we lose in the stock market? How much lower did the worth of our house go down this year? How much less is the US dollar worth? How many times have I been dumped? How much hair have I lost? Where did my figure go? But in life we have the choice to see things from the negative perspective or from the positive perspective.
I’m not going to lie to you and say that I always see things from the positive side, because I don’t. But what I know is that in any situation or circumstance in life there is always someone better off than you and someone worse off than you and if all you ever focus on is the negative, then far from living a life of greatness, all you will see is what you lose or don’t have.
The key is to see things for the way they really are: the way God sees them. Sure, we all lost an hour of sleep last Sunday, but for the next 5 months we gained an extra our of daylight each evening. Losing one hour of sleep to gain months of extra time in the day sounds like a good trade-off to me. Getting dumped by your boyfriend or girlfriend might hurt for a couple days, but perhaps they were not a nice person and in the end, you deserve better and have gained more respect for yourself. Maybe you’ve lost some of your hair (or all of it), but you’ve gained years of wisdom that you didn’t have back when you had a full head of hair.
One of the great tragedies in life is that so many people never live a life of greatness or find true happiness and love because all they see is the losses and don’t recognize the gains. By following Christ we might suffer the loss of friends, financial security, and comfort in our lives, but in knowing Christ we gain unconditional love, a life of greatness and eternal security! Any lose suffered in this life for Christ will be quickly overshadowed by the peace in our hearts that comes from the hope and realization of His love, protection, and providence—not just for this life, but for eternity! May we come to see that so often, we gain by losing.
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