Win, Lose, or Tie
There's an old saying that "You win some, you lose some". Truth is, not all "wins" and "losses" are created equal. Sometimes, one win be a little more sweeter than another or one loss will sting a little more than another. For instance, winning the lottery and winning a key chain are both wins, but most people would prefer winning the former. Likewise, losing a stapler and losing a phone are both losses, but losing a phone hurts a lot more than losing a stapler.
Two weeks ago, I went up to Wisconsin and got to do something that I always wanted to do: watched the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers play. Going in to the Badgers game, I was pretty pumped. They were coming off of a 13-win season, were ranked in the Top 10 in the polls, and were considered a College Football Playoff contender. I arrived in Madison that morning and had the fun of exploring the campus and pumped for the game, one that I fully expected them to win.
And they lost. To make matters worse, it was to a team they had easily beaten a year ago. After the game, I was speechless. I had spent all this money to make the trip up to Wisconsin and was really excited to see the Badgers play...and then they lost. It was a long bus ride back to Milwaukee, that's for sure.
Still, as I thought back on the day, all was not lost (no pun intended). I got to explore the Wisconsin campus, try out cheese curds (aka delicious fried cheese) and bratwurst. And I got to partake in the traditions of jumping around to "Jump Around" at the end of the 3rd quarter and sing "Build Me Up Buttercup". Most of all, I got to go to a place that I had always wanted to go to. Before the game started, they played flashbacks of old Wisconsin games, one of which was from a game that they played 15 years ago, where Lee Evans scored the go-ahead touchdown to beat Ohio State. That same weekend, my Dad took me to Wisconsin as a birthday gift. I can remember watching that game on TV, and it was pretty cool to see a clip of that again.
The next day, I got to live out another childhood dream: watch a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field. It was so cool to get to walk around Lambeau Field on game day. With Green Bay not exactly being a metropolis, the stadium itself is surrounded by neighborhoods - which means that fans can literally tailgate from their yard before the game (not to mention have the luxury of walking to the game). To be surrounded by thousands of fellow Packers fans was pretty fun as well. Going in to the game, I knew there was a decent chance that they wouldn't win. They were playing a bitter rival, the Minnesota Vikings. But hey, if you're going to go to a Packers game, you might as well make it a good one, right? Nonetheless, I held out hope that they would win, but knew there was a decent chance they could lose.
And they tied. The good news was they didn't lose, the bad news was they didn't win. It's hard to fully know how to feel after a tie, especially since it is an uncommon result. On one hand, I was frustrated because it looked like for a majority of the game that the Packers would win. On the other hand, I was relieved because it looked like the Vikings would win at the end of the game but missed a field goal on the last play of overtime. And on the mythical third hand, I was mostly tired and ready to rest. With the way the game ended though, I was happy that the Packers didn't lose and by all accounts, it was a good, tense game. It's not often that you get to witness a tie, either. And hey, as I started to reflect more on the trip, it truly was more about the experience than about the final outcomes.
Going to Wisconsin provided a reminder of a quote from Ratatouille: "the only predictable thing about life is its unpredictability". Sometimes in life you don't get the results or outcomes that you personally want. There are times in life where we don't get that "storybook ending" that we want, like watching Wisconsin throttle the competition or watching Aaron Rodgers lead a game-winning drive. However, although we don't always get the results we personally want, we still can find joy along the way and have hope. At the end of the day, I got to go on a trip I've always wanted to take that I'll always remember. Sometimes in life, you do lose. Or in really rare instances, you tie. But the thing is, win, lose, or tie, we are the same person. A win, loss, or tie doesn't change that.
Although we may not always win, there is a reason we can take heart: because Jesus did win. Last Sunday at church, the sermon was over Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan (Luke 4). Through those trials, Jesus won a battle that no one else has ever won at a level of temptation we'll never know be able to comprehend. There's one praise song about how Christ's name is victory, that He overcame death and makes us alive.
We don't get to choose the way life unfolds or the trials we face. However, we can always have that hope in Jesus Christ and take heart in knowing that He won. Life has a way of producing wacky outcomes. What matters is less the wacky outcomes themselves and more how we respond to them. This is something that I'm still working on in my own life.
When I was flying to Wisconsin, I never could have predicted that the Badgers would lose on a missed field goal by their pretty good kicker or that the Packers would tie. But win, lose, or tie, I'll always be a Packers fan and a Badgers fan. No matter what wins, losses, or ties life throws at me, I know that God will be with me every step of the way. After all, His son Jesus has already won for us all. And that's the most important win of them all.
Two weeks ago, I went up to Wisconsin and got to do something that I always wanted to do: watched the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers play. Going in to the Badgers game, I was pretty pumped. They were coming off of a 13-win season, were ranked in the Top 10 in the polls, and were considered a College Football Playoff contender. I arrived in Madison that morning and had the fun of exploring the campus and pumped for the game, one that I fully expected them to win.
And they lost. To make matters worse, it was to a team they had easily beaten a year ago. After the game, I was speechless. I had spent all this money to make the trip up to Wisconsin and was really excited to see the Badgers play...and then they lost. It was a long bus ride back to Milwaukee, that's for sure.
Still, as I thought back on the day, all was not lost (no pun intended). I got to explore the Wisconsin campus, try out cheese curds (aka delicious fried cheese) and bratwurst. And I got to partake in the traditions of jumping around to "Jump Around" at the end of the 3rd quarter and sing "Build Me Up Buttercup". Most of all, I got to go to a place that I had always wanted to go to. Before the game started, they played flashbacks of old Wisconsin games, one of which was from a game that they played 15 years ago, where Lee Evans scored the go-ahead touchdown to beat Ohio State. That same weekend, my Dad took me to Wisconsin as a birthday gift. I can remember watching that game on TV, and it was pretty cool to see a clip of that again.
The next day, I got to live out another childhood dream: watch a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field. It was so cool to get to walk around Lambeau Field on game day. With Green Bay not exactly being a metropolis, the stadium itself is surrounded by neighborhoods - which means that fans can literally tailgate from their yard before the game (not to mention have the luxury of walking to the game). To be surrounded by thousands of fellow Packers fans was pretty fun as well. Going in to the game, I knew there was a decent chance that they wouldn't win. They were playing a bitter rival, the Minnesota Vikings. But hey, if you're going to go to a Packers game, you might as well make it a good one, right? Nonetheless, I held out hope that they would win, but knew there was a decent chance they could lose.
And they tied. The good news was they didn't lose, the bad news was they didn't win. It's hard to fully know how to feel after a tie, especially since it is an uncommon result. On one hand, I was frustrated because it looked like for a majority of the game that the Packers would win. On the other hand, I was relieved because it looked like the Vikings would win at the end of the game but missed a field goal on the last play of overtime. And on the mythical third hand, I was mostly tired and ready to rest. With the way the game ended though, I was happy that the Packers didn't lose and by all accounts, it was a good, tense game. It's not often that you get to witness a tie, either. And hey, as I started to reflect more on the trip, it truly was more about the experience than about the final outcomes.
Going to Wisconsin provided a reminder of a quote from Ratatouille: "the only predictable thing about life is its unpredictability". Sometimes in life you don't get the results or outcomes that you personally want. There are times in life where we don't get that "storybook ending" that we want, like watching Wisconsin throttle the competition or watching Aaron Rodgers lead a game-winning drive. However, although we don't always get the results we personally want, we still can find joy along the way and have hope. At the end of the day, I got to go on a trip I've always wanted to take that I'll always remember. Sometimes in life, you do lose. Or in really rare instances, you tie. But the thing is, win, lose, or tie, we are the same person. A win, loss, or tie doesn't change that.
Although we may not always win, there is a reason we can take heart: because Jesus did win. Last Sunday at church, the sermon was over Jesus being tempted in the wilderness by Satan (Luke 4). Through those trials, Jesus won a battle that no one else has ever won at a level of temptation we'll never know be able to comprehend. There's one praise song about how Christ's name is victory, that He overcame death and makes us alive.
We don't get to choose the way life unfolds or the trials we face. However, we can always have that hope in Jesus Christ and take heart in knowing that He won. Life has a way of producing wacky outcomes. What matters is less the wacky outcomes themselves and more how we respond to them. This is something that I'm still working on in my own life.
When I was flying to Wisconsin, I never could have predicted that the Badgers would lose on a missed field goal by their pretty good kicker or that the Packers would tie. But win, lose, or tie, I'll always be a Packers fan and a Badgers fan. No matter what wins, losses, or ties life throws at me, I know that God will be with me every step of the way. After all, His son Jesus has already won for us all. And that's the most important win of them all.
Me at Lambeau Field, circa September 2018 and October 2003. I'll let you decide which one is which
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