(Click here for a video of John reading this Catch.)

Well the Angels won the 7-inning game on my birthday but they lost the 9-inning one. They might as well have phoned in the eighth inning, allowing 7 runs on walks and some embarrassing defensive plays on the field. They went into the eighth inning up 4-3 with only 6 outs to victory. They walked off the field, three outs and multiple mistakes later, trailing 10-4. “Mama said there’ll be days like this,” and baseball is like that. Twenty-two-year-old Reid Detmers, (born two months before Chandler), started this game for the Angels one week after he pitched a no-hitter against Tampa Bay in just his 11th big-league game. But game 12 was a little different. This time he didn’t last three innings. “Mama said …” (you know the rest).

That’s one thing I like about baseball — it’s true to life. If you’re having an incredible year, you’re still going to lose around 60 games, and in some of those games, the lid’s going to come off. It just wasn’t supposed to happen on my birthday. Somebody didn’t get the memo. But you know, it was okay. I enjoyed my family; I enjoyed watching every minute without feeling like I should be doing something else; and the hot dogs were amazing, delivered to my seat, no less. In some ways it was better than being there in person. 

Losin’ is winnin’ if it turns you around

It all looks clearer when you’re close to the ground

If you know you’re lost, then you can be found

And you walk out — a winner

              from the song “Losin’ Is Winnin’” on the album, Dark Horse by John Fischer

Something happens when you lose; you get what you can’t get any other way. You get humility. You get grace, forgiveness and mercy. You find friendship with the lowliest of the low. You get a clearer picture of who you are. And you see other people for who they are (and they are all beautiful, by the way, because they are made in God’s image).

I have spent a lifetime trying to convince myself that I am different than everyone else. To be honest, that “difference” primarily comes down to the fact that I am better than everyone else. When that belief is firmly entrenched in your psyche, it becomes very hard to get rid of. It’s so much a part of your thinking that you become blind to the fact that you think this way. 

There is one thing that will cure this thinking, however: it’s to lose — to fail. When you lose, you are thrown in with a whole bunch of other losers, and it’s impossible to think that you are better than any of them. It actually doesn’t matter, because the only good thing about all of us sinners is God’s grace. It’s all equal at the bottom!  No discrimination. No separation. 

So you see, losing isn’t so bad after all.