Christian Living

For You To Lose

by Daniel Owino Ogweno
09/12/15
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It is better to lose once than to lose twice. Today (12th Sept. 2015), I read an interesting devotional by Our Daily Bread. A couple were camping on the flanks of Mount Rainier in Washington State. One evening as they were returning to their campsite, they saw in the middle of a meadow two male bears fighting each other. They stopped in order to watch the fight. They also spotted a hiker nearby. They asked him what the conflict was about.

He answered them that the male bears were fighting over a young female. Because they could only see the two bears, they asked the hiker where the female was.

“Oh, she left about 20 minutes ago,” the hiker chuckled.

There are many things that can be learned in this story. The writer drew out a lesson that sometimes people fight because of ego and pride. I have recently written a book that I called Fundamental Doctrines and Practices of Stewardship. When I finished writing, a voice spoke to me saying, you haven’t finished. I had just gone through an experience that God used to teach me something that He wanted me to include in the book. Among the things that God has given us to take care of, there are things that we will lose—and this is not necessarily because we are careless. That brings me back to the story of the fighting bears. While they were busy fighting, the lady bear walking away. They may or may not find her again. The bears will bear the injury sustained in the fight—that is one. They have also ‘lost’ the female bear—that is two: It is better to lose once than lose twice.

There are things that we will be wise to let go—there is no need fighting over them. Whether we have been defrauded or robbed, we need to remember that the fraudster or the robber is more lost than what we have lost. The Lord Jesus used an autotomic narrative to help us understand how radical it can get when it comes to staking our inheritance in the Kingdom of God (see Matthew 18:8-9).

We can learn the same thing Jesus was teaching in Matthew 18:8-9 from a gecko. When a predator catches it by the tail, a gecko will rather endure the pain of autotomy (self-amputation) than be eaten whole. The gecko will let go the tail as it escapes.

Something to ponder: What is that you are fighting for that the enemy will use to drag you into his territory? Isn’t it time you let go?

May God speak to you, as you ponder over these things.