Turning Around A Losing Season
by Randy Robison
” I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.” (Psalm 32:8)
The National Football League’s season is winding down with the Super Bowl Championship just a couple of weeks away. The playoffs have witnessed the revival of a few franchises, including the team with the best record in the NFL and the best shot at winning it all.
Last year, the New York Jets were 6-10. This year, they made the playoffs. The Atlanta Falcons went from 5-11 to winners of the NFC South. In perhaps the biggest turnaround, the San Diego Chargers surprised all of the pundits by bouncing back from worst to first in their division, reversing a 4-12 record last year to a 12-4 record this year. And the team to beat, the Pittsburgh Steelers, lost only one game this year, coming back from a 6-10 record last year.
How does a football team turn a losing season into a winning one?
Jerry Jones, owner of the struggling Dallas Cowboys, asked that question a few years ago as his team suffered yet another losing season. “I realized since whatever we were doing wasn’t working, we needed to change -- I needed to change.”
Long known for his ego, Jones found it difficult to admit his failure. “It’s hard to reach up there and say, ‘I’m doing things different,’ because it is admitting I was doing things wrong before. But the facts are, by bringing in Bill, I’m willing to stand in front of everybody and admit it.”
"Bill," of course, is Bill Parcells, the man who led the New York Giants to two championships and helped turn the New England Patriots and the New York Jets from losers into winners. So what was Jerry Jones saying? He was laying down his pride to get help from an expert. He was giving up control to allow a proven champion to work on his team.
The outcome in Dallas has yet to be seen, but the principle remains true. In our lives, we often discover that we are missing the mark in certain areas. We may be losing more battles than we are winning in our personal lives. Our marriage may be second rate. Perhaps things happening “off the field” distract us -- meaningless or troublesome issues that really have no place in our lives. Whatever the cause, we find ourselves in a losing season.
Even though we may realize our shortcomings, we can’t seem to correct them. Like the Cowboys and many other teams, we watch the success of others and wonder how we can get our lives back together so that we, too, can be on top once again.
As Christians, we can turn our losing season around quickly but first we must swallow our pride and admit that we have to do things differently. The Bible calls this “repentance”. (1 John 1:9) It is simply admitting we were wrong and turning away from the things that are causing us defeat. Like Jerry Jones, we need to say, “What we are doing isn’t working. We need to change.”
Next, we need to call on the expert. We must go with a proven winner and ask Him to make some changes in our lives. Jesus said, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in…” Here we have the ultimate coach standing outside our locker room door! This is the guy who wrote the playbook that is guaranteed to win. He wants to coach our team, but we have to let Him in.
Finally, we must give up control. We must let go of our plan and let God work. This may require some emotionally difficult sacrifices. But God sees the whole picture. He knows how to make us winners. Like Jerry Jones, we need to back off, shut up and let go.
All of us have losing seasons. It’s a part of life. But we are not meant to stay there, repeating the same failures over and over. We need to admit where we are wrong, call on God to come in and fix things, then give Him complete access to our lives and full control to make the changes that will put us back on track to succeed.
This Week
What can you change in your life to move you closer to spiritual victory? Take inventory of your life and ask the Lord to show you what areas need to improve.
Prayer
“Lord, come into our lives and turn things around. Show us the things that we need to let go and the areas in which we need the most improvement. Take control, so that we may be victorious in you.”
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