Losing

We spend most of our lives chasing things that will never be in our grasp. We try to attain this special status and our goal is to have everything we ever wanted. The only problem with that is that we tend to have the perfect life and we expect everything to work out right then and there. The truth is that we can never have everything fall according to planned and sometimes it leads to disappointment. In some cases it may seem like you just found what you wanted and everything is going great and then suddenly you lose any type of hold that you had on it. We find ourselves losing stuff more often than not in life and letting go even after a short time can be a very tough thing to do. As a baseball player, I know that my goal for my team is to win a championship every year. Some years this seems perfectly reasonable and other years we would be crazy to think this way. If we lose a ton at the beginning of the year, our chances of even making the playoffs become slim and disappointment can come early and we know for a fact that we cannot make it to the postseason. Other years it comes down to the last game of the year to decide. Sometimes the pain of defeat is much better being felt early in the year because to have come so far and to fail sometimes causes more pain than just losing early. Same goes for the playoffs, when a team loses in the first round it is crushing but if you lose in the championship, you knew that it was definitely within your reach and it just slipped out. In life we deal with new situations everyday and sometimes it is hard to let people go or we fail to live out our life for Christ one day. The more and more you do something, the more painful it is to let go of it but there is peace and comfort. The pain is temporary and in the end you will be stronger because of it. You cannot let the status dictate the overall mood of your life. The effectiveness of a situation needs to be limited to minor jumps in emotion because whether it is a positive or a negative, it may only be temporary and it can quickly change. Celebrate the good times and know that the pain will not last forever.

Yesterday in church we talked about forgiveness in the story about Joseph but I think that we can gain another thing from this story. No matter what happened to Joseph, he remained faithful and he never let his circumstances get the best of him. He was favored and the shortly after he was cast out by his brothers and sold into slavery. Then when in Potiphar's house he felt like he was well taken care of and that he could not be in a better situation and then he was accused of adultery and put in prison. While in prison he had hope that he would be released by then the servant forgot about him only to later remember him and have him freed. Then after that, Joseph had to deal with his brothers coming back and asking forgiveness and putting him in a tight spot because of how they had treated him and seeing that his brother's truly did love him but they were just jealous of him. As you can see, Joseph had people come in and out of his life and his status changed quite a bit in just a short period of time. Thorough it all, he kept a good heart and it all worked out in the end. I feel like a lot of times I get too confident or too overjoyed by a situation and when it backfires then I really feel like the disappointment is all a result of me making it more than it really was. God has given me opportunities recently and I feel like some doors have closed but I am truly thankful for what he is doing and I know that if it is his will, it will all work out in my favor for the end. With a new school year coming up, I know I am going to meet new people and I will see old friends and with some of them there are things to talk about and with others we will have our conversations throughout the year and we will have things to deal with. Just try your best to understand the situation and not carry it out of context.

PLease keep praying for me and I will pray for all of you. I hope that God is moving in and around you. Keep seeking him with all you have.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson