A fellow is standing at a bar, just looking at his drink.(1)
For a solid half-hour, he just stares at it. Suddenly, a big
trouble-making truck driver steps up next to him, takes the drink
and chugs it down. The poor schlemiel starts crying.
The truck driver says, "Come on man, I was just joking.
Here, I'll buy you another drink. I can't stand to see a man
cry."
"You don't understand," says the first fellow. "This day is
the worst day of my life. First, I sleep through the alarm this
morning and get into the office late. My boss fires me on the
spot.
"I leave the building to go to my car and find, that in just
the few minutes I had been inside, it had been stolen. The
police were no help; they say I am probably out of luck. No DUH!
"Luck? I get a cab to return home, and when I leave it, I
realize that I have left my wallet and all my credit cards on the
back seat. I try to get the cabbie's attention as he drives
away, but no. Off he goes.
"I get inside the house, much earlier than anyone had
expected. Surprise, Honey, I'm ho-ome. I find my wife in bed
with the gardener.
"I leave home, and come to this bar. I stood here seriously
thinking about ending it all. And I was ready to do it. Then
you show up and drink my poison..."
A loser! There are loads of them out there. This week the
world's attention has been focused on Torino, Italy and the games
of the winter Olympics. I was intrigued, and actually taken a
bit back last week, when in an article describing the upcoming
opening ceremonies, the writer said that this would be the
highlight of the games for the vast majority of the 2500 athletes
gathered there. After all, only one person can win each event,
and there are only three total medals per event - that means all
the rest come away empty, regardless of their years and years of
training. What is the word? Do I hear loser? It sounds so
heartless.
Mike O'Neil of Kalam, Washington, is a heavy equipment
operator. A little while back, he ran his bulldozer right over
his own car. It seems he was dragging a large log out of the
woods and up an incline. His blade was raised which obscured his
forward vision, but he began noticing pieces of a Datsun
appearing under the bulldozer's tracks. In his own words, "Not a
good feeling."(2) Loser.
Do you ever feel like a loser? Ever watch "Seinfeld?" The
hit show owes a lot of its success to a twisted sense of humor
and a charming cast that could make even horrible behavior seem
amusing. The character of George Costanza is the "loveable
loser" in the bunch. George's character is based on the
real-life co-creator of the show, Larry David. Larry has the
same pessimistic attitude toward life as George does. In 1993,
when Larry won an Emmy for Best Writing in a Comedy Series, the
opening line of his acceptance speech was, "This is all well and
good, but I'm still bald."(3) LOSER! Ever feel that way about
yourself?
Loser stories are all over the pages of history. The
classic is that of Roy Riggles, a name that lives forever in
sports infamy. On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played UCLA
in the Rose Bowl. In that game, Roy Riggles recovered a fumble
for California. Somehow, he became confused and started
running...65 yards in the wrong direction. One of his teammates,
Benny Lom, ran him down and tackled him just before he scored for
the opposing team. When California attempted to punt, Tech
blocked the kick and scored a safety - two points - which proved
to be the ultimate margin of victory.(4) Roy Riggles, forever
after, came to be known as WRONG-WAY Riggles.
Ever feel like Wrong-Way Riggles? If you do, I have a word
from the Lord for us, a word that will help us keep going when we
feel we have let God and everyone else down. The word is found
right at the beginning of our Old Testament lesson found halfway
through the book of Jonah. Listen: "Then the word of the Lord
came to Jonah the second time ..."
We know what led up to this. God told Jonah to go to
Ninevah; Jonah deliberately disobeyed. He ran off in the
opposite direction in a hissy fit, because he knew, BETTER THAN
GOD, that Ninevah had no right to survive - they were the Nazis
of their day. They were AWFUL! Jonah split rather than take the
chance on a Ninevite Nazi revival. Then there was that storm at
sea, the big fish, and history's first submarine ride. Finally,
Jonah is barfed up on the beach. LOSER. BIG time. And here we
read, "Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second
time..." God is giving this loser another chance.
There is Gospel in that. A word of grace. Good news for
those who need a second chance, or a third chance, or a hundredth
chance. It is a gospel for Peter (who denied his Lord), for Paul
(who persecuted his Lord), for Jonah (who ran away from his
Lord), and even for you and me.
By the way, there is more to that story about Wrong-Way
Riggles than most people know.(5) That strange and infamous play
came in the first half, and everyone watching the game was
wondering what would Coach Nibbs Price do with Roy Riggles in the
second half? The players filed off the field, went into the
dressing room and sat down on the benches and the floor...all but
Riggles. He put his blanket around his shoulders, sat down in a
corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby.
A coach usually has a great deal to say to his team during
halftime, but that day, Coach Price was quiet. The timekeeper
came in and announced that there were only three minutes till the
second half. Price looked at the team and said simply, "Men, the
same team that played the first half, will start the second."
The players got up and started out - all but Riggles. He
did not budge. The coach looked back and called to him again.
Still he did not move. Coach Price went over to where Riggles
sat and said, "Roy, didn't you hear me? The same team that
played the first half, will start the second."
Then Roy Riggles looked up, and Price saw his tear-stained
cheeks. "Coach," he said. "I can't do it. I have ruined you. I
have ruined the University of California. I have ruined myself.
I could not face that crowd in the stadium to save my life."
Then Coach Price put his hands on Riggles's shoulder and
said, "Roy, get up and go on back. The game is only half over."
Reluctantly, Roy Riggles went back, and those Georgia Tech
players will tell you they have never seen a man play football as
Roy Riggles played in that second half.
Great coach, eh? Then I read the story of Jonah and the
stories of a thousand lives like his, and I say, "Great God, eh?"
We take the ball and run in the wrong direction. We stumble and
fall and are so ashamed of ourselves that we never want to try
again. And God comes to us, bends over us, and in the person of
Jesus says, "Get up. Go on back. The game is only half over."
Then I read what Paul wrote to the Corinthians and wonder if
maybe this was God's intention all along. God makes wonderful
use, perhaps the BEST use, of LOSERS! Paul writes to his friends
at 1st Church, Corinth and recounts a long list of trials and
tribulations which he has suffered. But he is not ready to give
up. "It is through God's mercy that we have this ministry," he
says, and that is why "we do not lose heart." He considers the
Gospel of Jesus Christ a precious treasure that needs to be
shared with the world, and then he admits, "we have this treasure
in jars of clay..." What? A precious treasure in such a fragile
and humble container? Apparently, this has been God's intention
all along.
There are examples everywhere. John Blue is one. John Blue
is a name you probably do not know. A part-time pastor and
social worker in eastern Oklahoma.(6) John was never much of a
student, but more than anything else, he wanted to be a
Presbyterian minister, a vocation that demands more than a little
school work. John finally graduated from the third college he
attended and then headed off to our Presbyterian Seminary at
Austin, Texas. During his senior year, he took an ethics course
required of all graduating pastors, a tough course. At midterm
there was a major test. When the professor handed the grades
back, he told the class that the grades ranged from 55 to 95.
After the class was over, the students filed out and began
to compare notes. "I made a 95," said one. "What did you make?"
"85," came the reply.
"Hey," someone asked, "I wonder who made that 55--can you
believe that!"
There was silence, then John spoke up: "That was my grade.
I made 55." Oops. There was shamed silence.
John Blue knew as much about ethics as anyone else in his
class. John knew how to be a failure, a loser; he had had lots
of practice. In a unique and wonderful way, John's less-than-
spectacular history and his willingness to own up to it made him
remarkably free. People trusted him. He knew something about
the sadder side of life that others did not and could minister to
those of his classmates who were frightened of such things.
John went on to spend most of his time counseling troubled
teenagers. They are already losers at 15, but that was OK with
John. He knew about being a loser and did not try to pastor them
with his success. Instead, he offered encouragement, hope, hard
work, and love. John Blue let them know there IS a gospel for
losers.
I love the way the apostle Paul affirms that in his own
experience. "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed;
perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned;
struck down, but not destroyed." Down but not out.
Did you look in the mirror this morning and see a loser?
Well, seeing a loser might be like seeing beauty - it is in the
eye of the beholder. The American sports world's attention will
soon turn from the Olympics to Major League Baseball as spring
training gets underway. Of all the spectator sports, baseball is
my favorite. I know, I know - some folks think the pace of the
game makes it about as exciting as watching paint dry, but there
is an elegance to it that I find uplifting, and especially when
it is done well. But what is "well?" Do you realize the best
hitters in the game only succeed about one-third of the time?
Seven out of ten at-bats end up in failure. Hmm. That would
make them big time losers in almost any other job (except perhaps
weather forecaster), if anyone cared to think that way. But no
one does.
It was baseball's opening day in 1954. The Milwaukee Braves
and the Cincinnati Reds played each other, and a rookie for each
team made his major-league debut during that game. The rookie
who played for the Reds hit four doubles and helped his team win
with a score of 9-8. The rookie for the Braves went 0 for 5.
The Reds player was Jim Greengrass, a name you probably have
never heard. The other guy, who did not get a hit, might be more
familiar to you. His name was Hank Aaron. Loser, right? Except
for being the player who became the best home run hitter in the
history of the game.(7)
I remember a wonderful Michael Jordan Nike commercial a few
years ago showing this nine-time All-Star, four-time MVP, two-time Olympic gold medalist, this once-in-a-century icon arriving
at the game, heading to the locker room. His stride is easy, his
smile secretive and knowing as he moves down the gauntlet of fans
and well-wishers. He walks like a winner. After all, he is
Michael Jordan, the man who made the impossible seem routine and
the merely difficult look easy. Yet in the voice-over he says:
"I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost
more than 300 games. Twenty-six times I have been trusted to
take the game-winning shot...and missed. I have failed over and
over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."(8)
What? Failure is why he succeeds? Being a loser has made
him a winner? Absolutely. There is a reason to go through
ordeal; there is value in adversity. We become tougher in the
trial, and learn that failure is not fatal. And occasionally,
one even becomes truly great. Wrong-Way Riggles would say AMEN!
There is an historic Presbyterian doctrine that we count as
one of the bedrocks of our faith tradition. It is known as the
"perseverance of the saints," and affirms that our family
relationship with the Lord will never be broken, no matter how
much of a loser we might turn out to be. Scottish preacher
Alexander Whyte once described the perseverance of the saints as
falling down and getting up, falling down and getting up, falling
down and getting up, all the way to heaven.(9) I love it.
A gospel for losers. Is there really such a thing? Listen
one more time to some heartening words: "Then the word of the
Lord came to Jonah the SECOND time ..."
Amen!
1. Leo Heler, via Ecunet, "Jokes," #6751, 8/24/98
2. "Dozer Drivers Flattens Car," The Knoxville News-Sentinel, 7/21/90, A-2
3. Greg Gattuso, The Seinfeld Universe, (Secaucus, New Jersey: Carol Publishing Group,
1998), p. 160
4. Haddon Robinson, "A Little Phrase for Losers," Christianity Today, 10/26/92, p. 11
5. ibid.
6. Thomas W. Currie III, "Learning to Be a Failure," The Christian Ministry,
September-October, 1997, pp. 26-27
7. James Merritt, Friends, Foes & Fools, (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holmes, 1997)
8. Leonard Pitts, Miami Herald, Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services, quoted in
Clergy Journal, 5/97
9. Quoted by Haddon Robinson
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