I am currently wallowing in my losses. My NCAA Basketball bracket has been blown to bits, and my MLB baseball team opened the season by being swept in a 4-game series. The record-breaking yellow blanket of pollen is disrupting my every breath outside, so I am confined to the inside to keep breathing easy. I did not plan for these things. Even the expected pollen is much more significant than the cold winter suggested.

The Holy Spirit gently tapped me on the shoulder – ok, maybe He smacked me a little harder than that –  and asked, “Why are you focusing on the losses, instead of the WINS that have surrounded you at the same time?!”

Just this week, I have been able to sing Jesus’s praises for: the gift of medical knowledge and technology and the miracles that rose from those, the amazingly beautiful friends and family that surround me in my life, the gift of presence of family who move mountains to be near, flowers outside my window each day that I can SEE because my eyes are able, and provision for my every need. I also did not plan on these beautiful gifts, the Lord just gave them to me!

This same week, I have heard of others having to bear news and circumstances that were not as uplifting. I have been on that side, too. Sometimes, you can plan for these, but even when we do, the planning is never adequate to minister completely to our human emotions. But what I can testify to is the fact that our incredible and loving Savior does not leave us alone to navigate any of these highs or lows. He is there to receive our high-fives on top of the mountain where we are singing His praises. He is also there to hold us so that we are not crushed in the bottom of the valley. (Psalm 91:11-12) He is faithful that way.

Death is always looming. We might think we delay it, or cheat it, or avoid it all together, but even those whom Jesus raised from the dead eventually died again. But He DID NOT die again after breaking out of the grave! He raised Himself and stayed that way. What JOY and HOPE this gives those who place their trust in Jesus! He tells us that the same life exists for us.

This is how we plan for whatever comes…we place our faith in Jesus, the One who overcame every single thing that comes against us, even death. This faith promises us that when we live in His light and grace and power, He will care for us in a way that brings us ultimate reward – eternal life! No more death, crying, pain, but an everlasting supply of high-five, celebratory, dumbfounded, awe-filled, beautiful moments.

“This all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed... For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to Himself.” 2 Corinthians 4: 7-14 (I added the underlining)

When we focus on the unplanned (and even planned) losses, we cheat ourselves out of the joy of the heavenly perspective that tells us NO MATTER WHAT COMES, we WIN! Jesus proved it by getting up out of the grave after burying every sin and earthly thing that threatens to hold us down. He left all of that there. And He ascended into heaven. We are told He will return in the same way – “so we fix our eyes on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:2) – because He has a plan for earthly things…they will pass away. But He will NEVER pass away, and neither will those who belong to Him!