The Underdog

“Studies have shown that the literal act of witnessing an underdog story gives us hope. Win or lose, humans are drawn to these stories because they inspire us to believe that we too can overcome. We can conquer something overwhelming. We can rise again after a devastating loss.”  No wonder we like underdog stories.

There are a lot of great underdog sports movies… Rocky, Hoosiers, Rudy, Miracle,The Natural ..… and they usually have some great sound tracks. Most of these are essentially true stories with some embellishment. I love underdog stories.  

It’s hard to find a good story that doesn’t have some element of the underdog…. “someone’s in big trouble, buried in a deep hole…. yet against all odds, he craws out to victory. The deeper the hole, the better the story.

The life of Christ is the ultimate story of the underdog. The hole  doesn’t get much deeper than 3:00pm on Good Friday… the devil has seemingly won… Jesus is defeated…all is lost. But just at this lowest moment, the Father raises Jesus from the dead. The victory is complete and final. Satan, sin, and death are all defeated. The ultimate enemies are conquered. 

You and I move into the role of underdog in our lives on this earth. We are lost and defeated and fearful and hopeless. We find our self in a huge hole …..”Rocky on the mat, getting killed”. But then the soundtrack begins and Christ comes and rescues us. And like all stories of the underdog, the victory is much greater than expected.

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians gives us insights into what’s coming for the underdog. He tells us that  “God provides far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.”(Eph. 3: 19-20) God has determined to give us far more abundantly than all that we ask or think. Whatever we ask for or think, God is planning to give us abundantly more. We are going to be surprised at all that the Lord has planned for us. Wow.

Listen up again.  “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God. Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Eph. 3:14-21)

What good news !