As our spiritual journey evolves, we might find ourselves transitioning from struggling against external forces of temptation to grappling with deeper questions of faith, meaning, and the nature of God’s presence in our lives. 

It’s a shift from trying to control or defeat to learning to surrender and trust.

In the Old Testament, Jacob wrestles with God and ultimately submits and is blessed, symbolizing that true victory in spiritual life comes through submission to God’s will rather than our own personal triumph. 

Father Makarios’s counterintuitive exclamation that he hopes to lose makes perfect sense when we understand that the goal of our spiritual journey is not to prevail by bending God to our own will.

Instead, the ultimate “win” is achieved when we are willing to be molded and transformed by God, even in the middle of hardship and confusion.