Winning in the game of life (Part II)

I began last week talking about winning in the game of life. We all like winning, nobody wants to loose (ask the Man U fans). Life is a game where many people win and others loose depending on the choices they make in life. We learnt last week that for us to win, "we must run with perserverance the race that is marked out for us". It is important to realize two things here, first which race to run in, and secondly how to run it. It doesn't matter how well you run the wrong race, you can never win that way.

For you to be a winner, you need to run the race that has been marked out for you. In other words you need to stay within your track otherwise you will be disqualified. You may run the fastest time in the 400 metres race but if you end up in the wrong lane that wount count. This is why I stress so much on the fact that each of us need to know what for heaven's sake we are here on earth for. If you do not know then it doesn't really matter how long you live here on earth as you will only be filling space instead of living a purposeful life. "The purpose of life is a life of purpose" is a very powerful statement worthy of all acceptance. If you don't live a life of purpose you can never win in the game of life.

This morning I woke up thinking of some prophetic words that were spoken over our (my wife and I) lives about two years ago. As I continiued to meditate over those words I was greatly stirred and filled with such joy on the realization that those words were actually being fulfilled before our own very eyes. It was like Jesus reading the words from the Book of Isaiah 61:1-4 and telling the people in the synagogue, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing"; what a moment that was. Jeses actually read to those people not just what I consider to be His job discription, but really His life's mission, His mission statement. Do you have a mission statement for your life?

After knowing what race to run then and only then, does how you run matter. To run the race marked out for you requires that you prepare well for it. Have a game plan. This past weekend it was a joy to watch Barcelona toy around with the great Manchester United. It was clear that of those two great clubs, actually the best clubs in the world this past season I believe, the team with a greater plan, the team that prepared well for the match ended up winning. Thus after establishing what race you got to run coming up with an appropriate game plan is the next important thing to do. They say that if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. It's so amazing how many people I talk to don't have a plan for their lives. They live their lives according to other people's plan for their lives. They have abdicated their responsibility of taking control of their own lives and let their bosses, their teachers, their parents some even their peers to plan their lives for them.

Plan and prepare well for your race and then run it with perserverance. For you to win, you must run well the right race, so what race you run and how well you run it is the key to winning in the game of life.

Winning in the game of life

I'm writing this blog at a time when Manchester United have just been crowned the 2010/2011 English Premier League Champions. They have now won the League a record 19 times and are now the team which has won this title the most having overtaken Liverpool's record of 18 League wins. This is truely great news to all Man 'U' fans but a very upsetting one for us Liverpool fans.

Watching the celebrations that took place last Saturday at old Trafford and similar ones that took place last week at Barcelona,  leaves you with the feeling of how sweet victory tastes. We all want to win, we all want to be on the winning side, to be identified with the champions. But you know what? You, yes you who is reading this blog, can be a winner; you can win in the game of life. And you know what! you can win without competing with anyone else but yourself. I have come to learn that beating myself is sometimes more difficult than beating my competitors. Excellence is nothing more than being the best you can be. And that is what God has called us to be. God didn't call us to be better than or like someone else, He made us to be the best us. He made me to be the best Barnabas I can be.

The writer of Hebrews in the Holy Scriptures gives us a liturgy of great men and women who beat themselves to become heros. Their heroic achievements are recorded in Chapter 11 of that book. Chapter 12 of the same book begins with these words,

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with patience (perserverance) the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith".

The cloud of witnesses talked about here are those heros I mentioned earlier, of whom the greatest is our Lord Jesus. These are the 'fans' watching us from the grandstands of heaven urging us to move on, "common you can make it, don't give up, we did it and so can you"; I can imagine them shouting at us.
Winning in the game of life will call for the three "Let 'us'es" seen above, which are vital for victory.

1. Let us throw off everything that hinders, what are you carrying that is hindering you or slowing you down that needs to be thrown off? What "Urgent" things do you need to throw off so as to take only that one important thing?
2. Let us run with patience the race marked out for us. How are you running the race and which race are you actually running? Could it be that you are running the rat race? or are you running someone else's race? Remember the race is not for the swift, neither is it for the rat. When Jesus came to an end of His brief sojourn here on earth, He said that "It is finished"; what was finished? The race marked out for Him.
3. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. Are you fixing your eyes on failures or are you fixing your eyes on finishers, are you having a victim's mentality or are you carrying with you a victor's mindset? Are you motivated by faith or are you being paralyzed by fear?