Have you ever been undefeated like NCAA wrestling and Olympic Gold Medalist Cael Sanderson, 159-0! Not many people will reach an undefeated season, much less a career.  However, for him to accomplish this amazing feat, he had to Lose first.  You see to know what it takes to win you have to lose.  You need to experience the feeling of missing the mark.  Then the questions of why and how and what I need to do different come.  Now Cael wrestled for his father in high school and that is where he experienced only 3 losses, but you know what those losses caused him to work hard to win!  As a coach I truly appreciate how sports and coaching relate so closely to Jesus and how God wants to be in our life.  Except, we never have to experience true loss because Jesus did it for us.  We will experience the sense of loss, though in our life.  The loss of a job, a relationship, financial stability and worse the loss of a loved one.  The crazy part in that last one, is when we lose them here on Earth, it is really a win for them in Heaven.

I am the first to admit I was always gung ho about how real Heaven is and I knew it to be true, but when I lost my mom, I shifted from concrete conviction of its realness to saying LORD!! I hope Heaven is real.  The loss we experience on Earth hurts and can consume us.  Much like a team that just can’t seem to win.  Then you go and watch them practice or lack thereof and you realize why they are losing.  That is how our walk with Christ is.  The beauty of believing in Jesus is the win is already in the books for us.  We just must get to the finish line and in a way that honors him and not us.  Jesus set the tone for winning when he defeated death and the devil.  He is truly undefeated but even in his perfect record, he had to suffer a loss to gain back the win.  He had to take on all the sin of the world.  You see the mistake we make is believing that the devil had something to do with Jesus’ death and he didn’t.  Jesus’ death was pre-ordained, he knew he was coming to take our sin.  We must understand the only way to defeat death is to die and then come back to life.  Jesus did, and I might add he is the only GOD who has done that.  These other gods that people follow have died and stayed dead.

So, what was it that drove Cael Sanderson to not lose and go 159-0 in college?  He didn’t like how it felt to lose and he did everything he could to never experience that again.  When I look at my life with Christ I do not do everything I can to draw near to him and live my life to fullest.  Just like the millions of athletes who all say they want to be champions and that’s it, with words and no actions, we fall short.  We must learn to sacrifice what we want and what our will is and ask God to show us what his Will is for us.  You get to that point by experiencing a loss, a loss that rocks your world spiritually, emotionally and physically.  However, in that experience you must release it all to Christ!  Cael Sanderson believes strongly in Jesus Christ and he said what kept him winning wasn’t just the physical and mental preparation to be a champion, the main thing was remembering to be humble for the gifts God had given him and the grace he received through Jesus Christ!  Let’s Get It!!  Live your life like the undefeated Champion you are through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, Our Redeemer!

One Love, One King, All Christ!