The epic synthesized trumpets, the sultry licks of the electric guitar, the quiet percussion of the tapped cymbals in the background. It can mean only one thing – the “Rocky” training theme song. It’s probably playing in your head right now as you think about it. If it’s not, treat yourself by opening YouTube and type in “Rocky training” or look it up by its real name, “Gonna Fly Now” by Bill Conti. Bah bahbah bahbah baba, Baba-baaaa, baba-baaa, baba-baaa…. 
What you maybe didn’t remember is that the Rocky training theme song has lyrics. They’re no Shakespearean sonnet, but they are lyrics. They go like this: “Trying hard now, it’s so hard now, trying hard now. Getting’ strong now, coming on now, getting’ strong. Gonna fly now, flying high now, gonna fly, fly, fly.”
When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 9, “Run that you might obtain it . . . I do not box as one beating the air . . . I discipline my body,” you can almost hear Bill Conti’s theme playing in the background. Maybe you imagine the video montage of your good works playing in the background – your morning Scripture reading, the awesome gift you slipped in the offering last week, the time that you visited that homebound person simply out of the goodness of your heart, that time when you actually remembered to pray for someone when you said you would, or perhaps even when you paid attention through the entire sermon. Surely these are righteousness training activities that will win us the prize.
But then you remember the movie. Rocky is a story of a loser. His fate at the end of the movie is to have his opponent declared the winner by split decision. Rocky leaves the ring a loser. All of the triumph of the training scene isn’t enough to win him the title. It is the same with us. Train as we may, we fail to win. We may be ‘getting strong now’, we may even get to a place where we feel like we’re ‘gonna fly now’, but only to find ourselves crashed and weak by the end of the movie – beat up and bloody like Rocky.
Still, Rocky doesn’t actually leave the ring as a loser, at least a complete loser. Rocky instead leaves as the winner, not of the fight, but of the relationship. The fight has awakened something inside of him, something that shows him something that he already has that is the “win” in his life: his girlfriend Adrian. As the reporters swarm Rocky asking him questions, as the ring announcer announces the judges’ decision – all he does is yell above their questions “Adrian! Adrian!” Nothing matters as much as Adrian and the love that she has shown to him.
No matter your level of training in righteousness, may it be the same of you. May you shout over the questions and decisions of the crowed seeking out for the One who won you for His own. May you shout out over the soundtrack and over the voices, “Jesus! Jesus!” And He will respond as Adrian did, “I love you.” That’s the real win.