the winning habit

It's the season of cricket again. Can our team at last succeed?

For the past who knows just how many years a team of us here from the church have played against a team from Bellevue Chapel.

It started as a single game one year. Which they won.

And the next year, too.

The following year we won the game. So the decision was made that really it should be a series. We lost the series that year 2-1.

And pretty much ever since that's been the story of the series every year. With one degree of glory or another we manage to lose.

This year is already beginning to look the same.

We played again tonight. We looked the part. Or some of us did. All dressed in white and kitted out, as cricketers generally do.

But we didn't produce the goods.

Nothing like.

To say we lost is probably clouding the truth of the thing. We were systematically demolished.

Despite our taking a wicket the very first ball of the night. That was the high point of all of the match for our team. It all went down-hill after that.

It can reach the stage when a team begins to think a bit like losers. Most times when we think like that, it's what we end up doing.

Perspective determines performance. At least to some extent.

Which is why so much of the Bible is about getting the right perspective on our lives.

The perspective of serial winners.

It's striking how much of the stuff that's there in the Bible is all about that.

God raising his Son from the dead: and giving us the victory.

Instead of the loser's "I can't", it's all about learning to say "I can.."

I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

That's the perspective on life that we all of us need. And that's what I'm always so eager to try and impart.

The trouble is, when it comes to the games of cricket we play, the other team shares that perspective. And we can't both win.

You see. There I go again. We can't!

Perspective is everything. I must learn to practice what I preach!