I Believe in Victory! by Mike Vincent

So much has been written about winning. There are the essays of Vince Lombardi. Pat Riley shared his insights in a great book about his 1980 NBA championship Lakers. We hold up Lance Armstrong for repeated victories, and names like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan connote victory and become synonymous with the game. Winning is quite simply the norm.

If sports model life, must there then always be "losers"? When my daughter played high school field hockey her team did not win a game in two seasons and only scored two goals that entire time. Were those girls losers? As I sat at many of those games and looked at more than the scoreboard, I witnessed many, many achievements...

There was the mother whose daughter never got any playing time, yet she volunteered regularly to work in the concession stand. There were the referees...never that great, but always fair. I figured the coach wasn't getting paid for working on Saturdays, but she worked seven days a week at the high school. I often wondered, is the freshman girl who always sits on bench a "loser". I figured that her grandmother who came to every game didn't think so. Aren't the athletes and event participates who simply keep coming back, "winners"?

It's not possible to win every game, so it must not be possible to win in the game of life ALL the time, is it? Are the stock brokers, doctors, CEOs & celebrities "winners" because they make big money and live in big houses? You know who I really think are the winners in life: the young girl who waited on me at the restaurant...the man at church who's taught 5th grade Sunday school for over 30 years...the unwed mom who responds in love every time her baby cries at night...the elderly man who patiently cares for his wife with severe Alzheimer's.

When you're not so preoccupied with keeping score, you'll see winners. You cheer for their patience. You applaud their character. You admire how they squelch their frustration with consistent effort. Their pain inspires! Their genuine friendship deserve trophies!

The high school kid working at Taco Bell, the first year teacher, the lady who visits an elderly friend in the retirement home every week.... ANYBODY who keeps trying and who keeps coming back is victorious in my book!

So...who is the greatest winner of all time? HE appeared to be such a failure to so many, but HE lovingly and powerfully kept coming back and coming back and coming back...even from a shameful, guiltless death.

Mike Vincent
Concordia University
St. Louis Development Branch