THE WINNER IN ME

Bad hair day or days.

When it rains, it pours.

These are two of the terms we use when everything seems to be wrong in our lives ... times when we feel like a loser in life.

Have you felt being a loser?  I do and I did.

No more scholarship for my
eldest son, Amos.

No fast remedy to the on and off fever
of my youngest son, Aiehn.  His sickness started
the evening of his birthday and lasted for
more than a week

No "yaya" to attend to my daughter Aiah
And so she stayed with me for two weeks,
joining in most church activities.

No more washing machine for it conked out
when I was about to do a heap of laundry
Hand wash and hard wash for me

It all happened within two weeks, one after another and altogether.

For days,  my mind was filled with:

•  doubts if my life really matters
• regrets that I did not do what I supposed to do
• cynicism if prayers will be answered

For days, my heart was filled with:

• feeling of helplessness
• feeling of hopelessness
• feeling of being of no good
• feeling negative on many things

Good thing, I need to stand and preach every Sunday!  And look for the words in the Bible to base my sermon on.

And this was what was given to me:

"... for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again ...." Proverbs 24:16

Not because I am righteous by deeds but because I fall as a person and as a christian.  I fall not just seven times but seventy times more and will still fall in the days ahead.

But I learned that, it doesn't matter how many times I fall but how many times I rise up.

I also learned that God counts the times that I stood up and not the times that I stumbled.

And so I bounced back and prepared myself to face my battle again.

Smile even in defeat
Never give up  on the next fight
Judges may declare him the loser
But in his eyes and heart, he is the real winner
And that is enough ... to believe one's heart

The real winner in life is not the one who does not fumble.  But the one who finishes his or her fight no matter how many times he oe she stumbles.

That Sunday, I stood before the congregation and preach.  I declared that when times the world thinks and judges me as a loser ...

I will have this shirt