Win or Lose, Move On Quickly
The Key Pressing On To The Mark of a Higher Calling In Christ
Dear #DailyFollower,
Introduction
It’s quarter to the weekend! I love the chance to rest and refresh that comes with the weekend, even though, of late, I’ve not been able to fully enjoy the downtime - thanks to the gift of family and children. Still, I look forward to the weekend.
I hope your week has been profitable and you’re looking forward to new beginnings in February.
For my investing readers, I also hope you’ve not been caught up in the worry about what Deepseek’s DeepThink R1 means for your AI investments. It’s been an interesting week for all AI concerns.
In all the fast-moving market dynamics, one thing we must be sure of as daily followers is that our God looks out for us and will guide us on the way to go, even with our investments.
I saw a post earlier this evening from my favourite football club. It showed the players back in intense training for their next match after a fantastic game that ended in a win yesterday.
As I read the text accompanying the training picture, I felt the Holy Spirit remind me of similar posts after a crushing loss. Right there, I got the topic for today’s newsletter.
Beyond The Football Analogy
Wins and losses are part of human existence and can be experienced in every sphere of life.
If you’re not into sports but you’re into movies, only one person can win the Oscars, Emmys, or any other coveted award at a time. Only one winner emerges on the podium to thank everyone who’s contributed to their journey to that victory. All other nominees wait their turn to become winners; in the meantime, they find ways to manage the emotions that come with their losses.
If you’re not into sports or movies but music, the Grammys can only have one winner; every other nominee endures a season of loss.
Where you’re not into fun, and books are your thing, only one person takes the first position after multiple rounds of examinations over the years, and we hardly have two best-graduating students for the same course in School. One person wins, even if it’s by 0.5%.
I used more analogies to establish a pattern we will all experience in our journey through life.
In our journey with Christ, too.
We will experience wins—seasons in which we do everything He commands, dwell in His presence, and enjoy encounters with Him.
At other times, we will experience losses—seasons when we feel distant from Christ and struggle to see Him in the everyday course of our lives.
The encouragement God seeks to bring to you through this letter is…
Win or Lose, MOVE ON QUICKLY.
It is the key to moving forward with Christ in this extraordinary journey to becoming more like Him in character and expression.
Move On Quickly
Paul, the Apostle, provides us the best analogy for this thought as captured aptly in Philippians 3:13-15, EXB using his experience:
13 Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not ·yet reached that goal [taken hold of it], but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the ·past [things that are behind] and ·straining toward [stretching/reaching forward to] what is ahead, 14 I keep ·trying to reach [pursuing; chasing] the goal and get the prize for which God called me ·to the life above [heavenward; upward] ·through [or in] Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are ·spiritually mature [perfect; complete] should think this way, too. And if there are things you ·do not agree with [think differently about], God will ·make them clear [or reveal this] to you.
After nearly three decades of walking with Christ, Paul says, “I still haven’t reached the goal”.
In most instances, when we don’t reach our goal, someone else does and takes the prize for hitting the top mark.
While wins and losses don’t mark our walks with Christ, I, like Paul, use this analogy to help us understand that the most important thing we can do in any season is learn to move on quickly.
Paul shares a philosophy that we all must adopt; he said that even though he’s not hit the mark, he does ONE thing ALWAYS, and what is this ONE thing? It is:
Forgetting the ·past [things that are behind] and ·straining toward [stretching/reaching forward to] what is ahead.
Top performers hire performance coaches to help them do precisely what Paul highlights as the key to moving on quickly.
Some say, “Use the failure as fuel for success”, but I say forget the failure because something greater lies ahead, and that must be our sole focus. Then, reaching your goal becomes much more plausible with every forward motion you take.
Forgetting is not easy; I know you could call it near impossible, but Paul provides some tools to help us achieve the impossible.
Paul’s 3Ps for Moving On Quickly
Purpose: Paul understood that his race is not about Him but his heavenward calling in Christ. He knew that failure was not an option and not a term that would be used to describe his journey. The same applies to us as daily followers, win or loss; we exist for a heavenward calling, and we aren’t and can’t be failures.
Prize: Paul knew there was a prize right before him, a day when he would fully experience what it means to exist in Christ's image and likeness. The appeal of this prize was much more significant than his lived experiences, and it enabled him to stay in his purpose—living for the heavenward calling in Christ. We also share in the hope of this prize and must stay on course like Paul.
Pursuit: “I keep trying to reach [pursuing; chasing]“ were Paul’s words to the Philippians about how he handled his wins and losses. With the purpose clear and the prize defined, Paul had only ONE other assignment, which, after forgetting the past, was to chase. We move on quickly from our wins and losses by purposefully pursuing the prize ahead of us.
When we remember Paul’s 3Ps in our quest as daily followers, wins and losses will never define us—they are things we always forget so we can keep moving forward.
Key Takeaways
Our wins and losses don’t define us; they give us a catalogue of things to forget as we press forward in Christ.
Our consciousness of our purpose, prize and pursuit in Christ keeps us moving forward.
As Paul did ALWAYS, we must consciously decide to move on as quickly as possible. Paul’s 3Ps for moving on quickly are there to help us.
Conclusion
Staying in the euphoria of our victories or despondency of our defeats only keeps us from seeing and accessing the more remarkable things God has in store for us.
Please don’t give in to the urge to wallow or linger; let’s try our best to move forward quickly from where we are right now.
There is much more for us in God, but we must press into this more, and we can only do that by moving on quickly.
So, let’s move!
Yours faithfully,
John, a #DailyFollower.
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