Life’s losers are often the real winners. A horse named “Seabiscuit” was considered to be a loser. Here are some of the loser facts about the loser horse: The owner of “Seabiscuit” lost his son in an accident and was then divorced. Seabiscuit’s trainer was old and considered “over the hill.” The rider of Seabiscuit was too tall and seemed to do nothing but lose boxing matches. And Seabiscuit?
Well, Seabiscuit was beaten and abused by his original owner. Seabiscuit was also trained to be a runner-up in order to help other horses be trained to win. After completing his training in never winning a race, Seabiscuit was sold for a cheap price. He was sold to the divorced “loser.” So that adds up to four counts of “loser” against Seabiscuit: the loser owner, the loser trainer, the loser rider, and the loser horse. No gambler would touch such a horse with a ten foot pole! In fact, Seabiscuit reminds me of an old saying about the man who taught his horse not to eat or drink. When the horse was fully trained, it died. Not so, Seabiscuit, however!
With the “new management,” Seabiscuit pulled some big surprises. He won several races! Then in 1938, Seabiscuit and the rest of his crew made history. In what was dubbed the “race of the century,” 40 million people listened to their radios – and stores around the nation closed – while Seabiscuit raced War Admiral, the standing Triple Crown winner. This was a race between only Seabiscuit and the revered War Admiral – a “match race.” What happened in this race? Seabiscuit won the race by three lengths!
Wow, what a lesson! I’ll take being the unlikely, against-all-odds winner over the more famous “winner” any day!
I think that any honest person can relate to the following scripture. The Apostle Paul was speaking of those whom God chose to be followers of Christ:
“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things — and the things that are not — to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him…Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.'”
Paul also said that when he was weak, he was strong. God seems to take great pleasure in picking “losers” to be “winners.” Christ even said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick; I have not come to call the righteous [those who think they are righteous], but sinners” (Mark 2:17).
Better to focus on the reality of our needs and God’s promises of strength & victory before believing the negativity that people often throw at us. There’s just something about Seabiscuit that calls out the winner in all of us!