The Distance Between Victory and Defeat

Dear lovely people,

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths” Says Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

It’s my experience that the distance between a great victory and a terrible defeat is one step, and often only a short one at that. A fact of reality is that in a fallen world we can be riding high on the cloud of some great success, and the very next moment find ourselves in the valley of failure and despair. One moment we can be like Samson victoriously heading towards Gaza, and the next he sinks into darkness like a planet cut off from its centre (Judges 16:1-31).

There was a kingdom, prosperous and strong and whose King was kind and fair. One day the king had to go away to some other city for some business, but who would take care of throne in his absence, none of his prince were old enough and there was no other suitable person for sitting on the throne. There lived a monk at the outskirt of the kingdom, who was famous and well talked about. So the king thought of giving his throne to him, as the monk was wise, just, kind and all the other qualities. So he approached the Monk and made him the offer and the Monk accepted.

A week later while the King was on his business trip, enemies attacked the kingdom. The Kingdom was strong and could defeat the enemy incurring only a few losses. But the Monk ordered the soldiers to retreat and not to engage with them. The enemy king announced that he was waiting for the soldiers to fight him at the border of Kingdom, But the Monk didn't heed to him. The enemy entered into the kingdom, and the Monk ordered his soldiers not to engage.

This whole thing kept on going and going. Enemy soldiers were everywhere inside kingdom, and Soldiers were ordered not to engage into battle. Finally the enemy king stood outside the palace and announced that he was waiting for the king to come out and fight so that he could take up his throne. But the Monk didn't pay any heed to him and the enemy king slowly entered into the palace. When he entered, all the guards bowed down to their knees, with their weapons on the ground.

The enemy king was surprised beyond belief, he never expected such an easy victory. He came into the throne room and saw the Monk sitting on the throne. Thinking of him as a king, he invited him to a duel and the Monk stood up from his throne and said "What do you seek?" "I want the throne and this kingdom, so come down and fight so that we can decide who to sit on it." Said the enemy King with pride.

"So you want the throne. Then why did you come with all those soldiers, if you just could have asked, I would have given it to you." Replied the Monk and the enemy King was surprised and he was looking into the Monk's eyes and there, the Monk stood stepping aside from his way to the throne. The Monk said with a calm temper. "What are you waiting for? The throne is Empty and it needs a king." The Monk smiled as the enemy King stepped up and on the throne. The enemy King was very happy, hardly believing the reality around him and in that moment of ecstasy, The Monk walked out of the throne room and then the palace.

Someone asked him, "Why did you do that? We could have protected ourselves from them without any difficulty, why did you surrender? Why did you accept defeat even before fighting?" The Monk replied. "I didn't lose. We don't need to protect ourselves from those who seek no harm against us. By not fighting, I have saved thousands of people from dying, millions of people from grieving, and I have given you a proper King. I didn't lose. In more than one way, I was the winner today." The Monk smiled and left the place.

“Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure” So says George Edward Woodberry.