MY BLESSED DEFEAT

(Republished Post by: Madie Hobbs)

Success has become a sought-after concept, hasn’t it?

It has become an idol in the eyes of men to be worshipped above all others, to be glorified and pursued with every ounce of our strength. It has become what many people believe to be the only thing which can really teach us in life.

I would like to challenge this.

You see, from my personal experience, I believe defeat is the most intense and often most meaningful teacher. It is one which may drill lessons we do not wish to learn into our minds, lessons we would far prefer to be ignorant of, but are of great value, nonetheless. Defeat has this funny capability to knock us down a few pegs and remind us we don’t have all the answers.

In fact, I think defeat can often be the most potent kind of success.

This is quite the “gospel” kind of concept, don’t you think? It is a concept which is completely backwards in our minds, in the world around us, and in our feelings. But I have often found that the only gospel worth believing in tends to follow this pattern. A pattern which looks entirely foolish to those who have not been changed by it.

One of my favorite poems lays out this concept quite beautifully, and it is a piece of art I continually go back to. The poem is Defeat, by Khalil Gibran, and I will include a few verses of it today, but I encourage you to go and read the entirety of it here.

In one of my favorite verses he says,

“Defeat, my Defeat, my solitude and my aloofness;

You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs,

And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory.

Defeat, my Defeat, my self-knowledge and my defiance,

Through you I know that I am yet young and swift of foot

And not to be trapped by withering laurels.

And in you I have found aloneness

And the joy of being shunned and scorned…”

I especially love this excerpt because it reminds me of the suffering Jesus went through for us, but also the great Beauty to be found within it. Not many of us can say we find joy in being “shunned and scorned”, but how beautiful if we, like Jesus, accepted this form of defeat as a great success? How beautiful it would be if we could but grasp this concept that to look like a failure in the eyes of the world because of doing the right thing, sacrificing ourselves for the cause of the gospel, and being willing to burn for the Savior we love is the highest form of success we could ever achieve.

Don’t get me wrong. This is a concept I continue to struggle with day after day as I am refined to be more like Christ.

For example, last week my family and one of our honorary family members attended a week-long camp meeting we’ve enjoyed going to for the last three years. However, I must confess, I always approach this week with a hint of trepidation, and even a little dread. The first year we attended this camp meeting, my dad ended up having a medical emergency that landed him in the tiny hospital near the camp.

Last year, Lilly and I had just uploaded one of our most listened and most responded to podcast episodes we’ve ever posted, and on the first day of this camp meeting (which we have come to consider our family vacation) we got an email from someone close to us. In this email, the person conveyed their whole-hearted disagreement with our episode and said some harsh, hurtful things. All I could think after we read it was “well isn’t this just the best way to begin a vacation?”

This year, my dad had to attend a meeting for a local ministry organization our family has been deeply involved in and experienced a great deal of defeat when trying to stand up for the right thing, for God’s principles.

The amount of defeat we always seem to experience during this time can often introduce a lot of stress, worry, and intense discouragement. I have found myself asking the Lord on many occasions, “why can’t we just have a break from all this defeat? Why can’t we just stand up for the right thing, and for once, have everyone support us?”

But then I am reminded of why we go through these things. The explanation is found in the first Beatitude in Matthew 5:3.

It says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven” (ESV).

It turns out, even though this passage already seems a bit backwards to us, the term poor in spirit actually becomes even more radical when looked at in its original context. This expression in Jewish culture would have meant that a person who was poor in spirit was entirely helpless, completely unable to sustain themselves without help from those around them.

Quite frankly, someone who was poor in spirit had been defeated.

Praise the Lord for defeat! Praise Jesus for the experience we get to have of being “shunned and scorned” when we embrace His teaching!

Hallelujah for the defeat the world views as insurmountable, for through it we gain the very kingdom of Heaven!

And is that not the ultimate success, dear readers? Is it not the one reward we should chase after with every fiber of our being and devote every ounce of ourselves to achieving?

For is this not what Jesus demonstrated to us? He showed us what it meant, what it looked like, to chase after the kingdom of Heaven by becoming a helpless human being, and enduring the scorning and the shunning, which led Him to what looked like the ultimate defeat; death on a cross.

But what have we gained by His “defeat”?

We, my dear friends, have gained the ultimate success. We have been given the ability to suffer defeat by not chasing what the world offers, but turning in the opposite direction and becoming helpless, literally unable to sustain ourselves without help from Him who knows what our sufferings can produce and calls us to embrace them.

We may have felt hints of defeat while we were at camp meeting, but many of us actually said it turned out to be one of the best weeks of our lives.

I wonder why.

“Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage,

You and I shall laugh together with the storm,

And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us,

And we shall stand in the sun with a will,

And we shall be dangerous.”

Defeat, by Khalil Gibran

SO, WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE?

= How can we approach defeat with a different mindset?

= Are you willing to bleed, suffer, and die for the sake of the Kingdom?

= What are you going to do differently?