Winning Attitudes Lead to Winning Teams

Why are some professional sports teams always at the bottom of the standings? Most teams cycle up and down the standings, but others stay near the cellar door seemingly afraid of success. Whatever the cause, whether poor management or inferior talent or something else, these teams have an attitude of losing that is difficult to break.

We can find that attitude in our own lives. When I was a young single teacher, my mentor told me he wasn’t happy in his marriage. He was about ten years older than I was. Then he went on to say he didn’t know anybody who was happily married.

This pronouncement set me back. I looked around at our mutual acquaintances and thought maybe he was on to something. I wrestled with that thought for some months. I began noticing all the unhappily married couples I knew. I got caught in a spiral of negativity. Everywhere I looked, I saw people burdened with unhappiness.

When I met my future wife, I began to analyze my friend’s comments from a different perspective. I knew people who were happily married. There were plenty of happy marriages all around me. But I allowed one person to influence my attitude so much that I had started looking at marriage differently than I ever had before.

It’s crazy, but that’s an example of having a losing attitude. Our behavior is shaped by our attitude, and our attitudes are shaped by those with whom we associate. As we think about our own lives, we can identify times when we’ve been locked into unhealthy relationships with people whose influence on us is harmful.

I’m encouraged by the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, who changed his life around after an encounter with Jesus along a road in Jericho. Zacchaeus had an attitude of losing. In fact, he lived in a culture of losing. The people called him a "sinner" because they considered him to be a greedy thief. After his encounter with Jesus, this "sinner"changed his outlook on life. Zacchaeus turned away from his former self and found an attitude of hope. In fact, through Jesus he joined a culture of hope.

Like Zacchaeus, I turned away from my own attitude of losing and and the people around me who were part of a culture of losing. Now, my wife and I have been married for more than twenty-seven years. We’ve embraced a culture of hope in Christ Jesus.

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