There are a couple of really strange statements the Lord Jesus made. He said several times that if you tried to keep your life that you would lose it. (Matthew 16:25, Luke 17:33) He also said something that makes no sense if you are running a race--"But many who are first will be last, and the last, first."" (Mark 10:31)
My son sent me a sports story that gives us a taste of the concepts the Lord was speaking about. An incredibly successful girl's high-school softball team found itself playing a team that didn't even know how to play the game. What should have happened, by the usual standards, was for the "Invincibles" to score the requisite runs for the "slaughter rule" and then go our for pizza, leaving the underlings to nurse their wounds and go home eating bag lunches in a quiet bus. They couldn't help it, they were just better than the other team. Claim the win. A victory is a victory. To the victor go the spoils. Quote the Vince man. "Winning isn't the main thing. Winning is the only thing!"
I don't know exactly how the idea came to them but the clear winners in this contest decided to do something different. They would lose so they could win something better. They didn't throw the game--that would have been demeaning to the team with inferior skills. Instead they decided to use the couple of hours it would normally take to play a game to hold a clinic to teach the inexperienced team to play better. In order to get the winning and losing thing out of the way, they forfeited.
I'd like to interview one of these young women twenty-five years from now. "Tell me about the most memorable softball game you ever played." I would ask. Somehow I think the answer will start, "Let me tell you about the game we forfeited when we could have won throwing wrong handed, and batting with broomsticks.
By willingly being last, these women clearly finished ahead--not of their competitors but in front of all expectation. By willingly releasing that to which they had a clear right, they received more than they could have imagined.
You can read the whole story here.
If it works in a game, just think what can be accomplished if we apply these principles in life.
It's STTA.