Lessons From Loss

Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: James 1:9-10a

The first part of this is pretty easy to grasp: when things go well, and you are being blessed and prospering, rejoice. But the second half--the half telling us that we should rejoice when we're taken down a notch, and things are all going against us--well, that's a little harder to swallow. I can't claim to have this figured out, much less have mastered the art of rejoicing in defeat, but I think maybe we can take a lesson from our losses. And I don't merely mean in the sense of learning from your failures, coming back stronger, "try, try again" and all that mess. I mean maybe we have to be knocked down from time to time so that we can see how little much of the things we value so highly actually mean. After all, our lives are, (big picture here) in and of themselves, small specks on the timeline of forever, fleeting images in the visual cacophony of human history. How much less, then, are the temporary things, the little glimpses of fame and fortune, that we can grasp momentarily and lose in an instant? I guess what I'm saying is, maybe we can take joy in our losses because then we can see what really matters--only in loss can we understand value.