THE BIGGEST LOSER

Tears practically ran down my cheeks as I sat glued to the chair and was staring at the TV screen with so much concentration that I could easily have been mistaken for a student who was preparing for SAT exams (the American version of JAMB).
Prior to my emotional outburst I had been browsing through the channels on the decoder (as I usually do when I’m bored or when there’s no soccer game going on) and then I stumbled on this reality show: “The Biggest Loser”.
It comprises of a bunch of overweight folks in 2 teams (Blue and Black) with each team having a trainer who supervised them. They hit the gym and carried out several weight-loss programs and the end of the week, each team chooses a member of the opposing whom they feel has lost the least weight as a way of finding out the more productive of the 2 teams. The show had gotten my attention and so I decided to stick around and see the episode through. Skipping some of the rather boring details the blue team lost and all but one of the 6 members of the team were up for eviction. Each of the 6 members of the team were to vote for the person they wanted out; after the voting exercise there was a tie, 2 members had 3 votes each to their names and the tie-breaking responsibility fell on the black team (their opponents). The black team however, had the luxury of overturning the votes and evicting someone other than the 2 members that were tied; but every member of the blue team had some seconds to tell the black team why they needed to remain in the game show. Each of them took turns to speak and believe me their stories were quite compelling; perhaps the most touching of them was that of a man who wept upon seeing that he had lost 18 pounds in the course of the week and now weighed less than 300 pounds (136kg) for the first time in 14 years.
Here are a few of the things I was able to pick up from this TV show; it was a game and most of the contestants were there solely to shed some of their weight. Each member of the blue team had given a rather compelling and moving reason for wanting to remain in the program and some of the black team members got caught in the ‘emotional bubble’ at the time. However as soon as the black team guys were to make their decision; the speed at which they changed from sympathetic and concerned faces to calculating game faces was quite remarkable. Their decision on who to evict was eventually based on the member of the blue team who they felt has been making the most progress and could turn out to be a threat to the safety of their team.
I’m not sure if I’ve been able to paint this picture a clearly as I would have wanted but I would like to share some of my thoughts.
Often times in life, it is when we start to make progress and we are getting close to realizing our dreams that we need to be most steadfast and of good (if possible best) faith. It would shock you to know that the person who was eventually evicted had attained the 2nd highest weight loss percentage that week and he had certainly put in a lot of work that week to have achieved such impressive weight loss figures.
Friends, we are to brace ourselves at all times especially when we start to succeed because that is the period we are most susceptible to ploys designed for our downfall. However, we should not be discouraged when we suffer setbacks or stagnation after we’ve enjoyed a phase of success; always remember that “the success you’ve achieved is a clear indication that you are capable of much more than that”.
I will wrap up my thoughts with these 2 scriptures, both from the book of Romans chapter 8. Verse 18 says “for I consider that the sufferings this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” and verse 28 also says “and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose” (NASB – New American Standard Bible). Having these in mind, “the biggest loser” if you ask me, is “the adversary”.