SO Wigan Athletic turned the tables on Manchester City.
The club in danger of relegation from the Premier League defeated the mighty team that won the Cup in 2011.
It was a wonderful example of the underdog coming out on top. And we all love it whenever it happens.
There are great links here with the teaching and mission of Jesus. Again and again Jesus said that the mighty would be brought low and the humble be lifted up.
But, of course, he wasn't talking about football or indeed any other instance of winning and losing in the normal course of life. He was laying down a principle of the way God so often works.
Last week my wife and I were treated to a performance of Shakespeare’s great comedy As You Like It at the RSC's theatre in Stratford The play contains a number of well-known lines with which many of us our familiar. One such is ‘Sweet are the uses of adversity’ How true that is. It reminded me of something my fatherin- law wrote on the box containing the first chess set he gave to my wife when she was a young girl. “Lesley, remember that it’s great to win, but you learn more when you lose.”
Wigan Athletic’s win has no doubt done wonders for the morale of the club and has certainly boosted the town’s self-image. I wonder what lessons Manchester City are learning from their defeat?
Jesus taught that it was, and is, essential for you and I to be humbled. Our greatest enemy is not our opponent at a given sport, nor somebody else who may have, in the past, given us a hard time, or who may at present be doing so. No, our greatest and most dangerous foe is our pride. C.S.Lewis called pride ‘the Great Sin’, for it is our pride which comes between us and our neighbour and between us and God.
So when did you last face some sort of defeat or loss?
It has been said “Man’s extremity is God's opportunity”.
Perhaps we can look upon our defeats and disappointments as a gift from above, And perhaps as we look back on them we will be able to say “Thank you for that difficult time. But for that I wouldn’t have learnt what I have. I'm a better person for it.”
CANON DAVID COOK St James’s Church Chipping Campden
