ChosenRebel's Blog

There are those times in life when we lose. But there are also those times in life when we think we are losing and we aren’t. Sometimes life is kicking us in the shins and when we fall to the ground in pain we get kicked in the head as well. In our family, we have a “family slogan” about this phenomenon.

“Somedays you eat the bear,
Somedays the bear eats you,
Somedays the bear just swallows you whole!
But that’s okay, 
God is still God, and you are still His.” 
(# 29 in the Schoenleber Family Slogans)

It’s easy to feel like you are losing when your boss criticizes your performance or you lose a job over a misunderstanding, or a position because of departmental intrigues. It’s not easy to start over again when you are short of retirement and the company finds a way to get rid of you for a younger candidate, or you’re a younger worker let go in a company downsizing that starts with the those who have the least seniority.

When the professor grades you lower than you thought you deserved in the same week that your parents announce they are getting a divorce and you don’t have any friends to confide in, life is kicking you in the head. And then there are those whose experience in life makes all of these heartaches pale in comparison. I’m thinking of families who have lost a child to things like fentanyl or suicide or drunk driver. I’m thinking of men and women widowed early, or couples who have experienced multiple miscarriages in the hopes of starting a family. I’m thinking of parents who are estranged from sons or daughters and are at a loss for how to bridge the divide. I’m thinking of a family in Illinois who lost a son in a military action and a family in Texas broken over Covid effects on a another son. It would be easy in all of these things that you are “losing at life.” 

Hard, painful, heart-breaking, heart-shattering as all of these things can be, maybe, sometimes, we misinterpret the underneath story of what God is or might be doing in our lives. James 1:2-4 hint at this reality: “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”  

If temptation and trials can have good results in our lives surely afflictions of the heart can also have good results in the good-shaping hands of our God. But notice, Romans 8:28 does NOT say that “all things are good” but that “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God”. All things are not good, but our God is so good and powerful, that He can cause all things, through the loving hand of His compassionate and wise counsels, to bring about good in our lives. And that’s where the painting attached to this post comes in. The painting is popularly known as “Checkmate”. Satan is depicted on the left, looking arrogant and in-control. His opponent on the right, looks rather resigned and concerned. His soul hangs in the balance. “Lose the game, lose my soul.” And indeed this was the popular understanding of this painting for many years. 

The painting “once hung in the Louvre museum in Paris, painted by Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch. Today, the painting is popularly known as “Checkmate.” It is now in private hands, having been sold in a Christie’s auction in 1999.” But at some point, a chess champion took a closer look at the pieces on the board.

A closer look at “Checkmate”

And what he found was that the forlorn man on the right was actually one move away from checkmating the devil!

So we too, when it looks like all is lost, as we trust in Christ, place our hope in Him, every situation can be turned to our good, His glory, and the kingdom’s advance. Perhaps not immediately, perhaps not without tears, but ultimately and finally and even, triumphantly. That is our hope because the gospel is true. Easter is coming. He rose. That truth rings through the centuries and gives us hope in the midst of our pain.