Losing

Chris Kluwe

Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe writes a blog, "Out of Bounds."  and in a recent posting entitled, "Smiling Faces, Hidden Places," Kluwe writes about what it means to lose in sports. He opens the posting by saying that, "Losing sucks. It’s the absolute worst feeling in the world, and anyone who tells you that losing is ok is lying to both you and themselves. The sensation is like a colony of fire ants gnawing away at your inner abdominals, spitting their venom all over your insides until you feel you have to scream to release the pain."  He goes on to write that losers can't say much in public other than, "We've put it behind us and are focused on the next game."  Publicly they have to take losing stoically.  Inside, however, it hurts and the hurt never really goes away.  He then writes,

 It fades after a while, the angry introspection of defeat, but it’s always there, always lurking in that mental prison, pacing restlessly behind its bars like a caged tiger, eyes agleam with savage hunger to rend and tear. You can never let that beast out though, lest it wreak your life and those around you. Some placate it with alcohol, some with religion, some with sex, some even with the hard earned serenity of acceptance, the realization that what’s done is done and you can’t change the past no matter how much it hurts.

Last year, the Vikings were 3-13.  This year they are in a "building year," which is football code speak for "expect more losses."  That's a lot of hurt.

It is important, however, that in the above paragraph he offers what seems to be the only effective way to cope, namely "the hard earned serenity of acceptance."  He doesn't equate serenity with religion, which he lumps together with alcohol and sex.  He also doesn't define it and doesn't seem to feel that serenity for himself.

It is telling that Kluwe lumps religion together with sex and alcohol as addictive coping strategies that are, evidently, unhealthy.  We can understand why he might do that, and in many cases he may not be wrong.  My own take would be, however, that Christian faith at its best takes us in the direction of serenity.  We lose at a lot more in life than sports, and we have to accept many things that we would just rather not accept.  A faith rooted in Christ will help us to navigate the losses.  At the end of loss is the possibility of comfort and serenity.  Without claiming that any of this is easy, one of the things faith should do for us is to open us up to embracing that comfort, which in turn should lead us to discover "the hard earned serenity of acceptance."  Amen.