We all love an underdog story!
Frodo. Harry Potter. Katniss Everdeen. The Mighty Ducks. All underdogs. All examples of the little person who beat all the odds to do something huge, pit against great powers and yet somehow managing to ‘win’ the day. These are stories that we love, and we find ourselves cheering for the heroes of these stories.
But why do we love underdog stories? I want to suggest there are two big reasons they appeal to us, one of them about ourselves, and one of them about God.
We all feel like the underdog
The first reason these stories appeal to us is that we can relate to the ‘little guy’ in ways we can’t relate to big powerful empires. In this great big world, most of us feel pretty powerless a lot of the time in the face of challenges and injustices that we see around us. What difference could I possibly make, just little old me?
So then when a story comes along with someone who looks a lot like ‘little old me’ somehow making a huge difference, it excites me and gives me courage. And especially when it is a true story, like the amazing things achieved by Alan Bates in working for justice in the Post Office scandal that’s recently been given a lot of attention due to an ITV drama. Alan is an ordinary man who, alongside lots of other ordinary men and women, managed to do an amazing thing. And if he can, we start to wonder if we can as well…
And even if we have done some big things, this feeling we still haven’t ‘made it’ can persist. You might be the top of your field, have lots of responsibility, excel in a certain area, but it still might not feel that way to you. At this point it’s not really in question that Ronnie O’Sullivan is the greatest Snooker player of all time, but this weekend after winning his 8th Masters title said this about what motivates him to play: “I’ve always come just to master this game and I’m yet to be able to master it, but I’ll keep trying.” That’s right, Ronnie O’Sullivan, hasn’t mastered Snooker! Maybe everyone really does feel like the underdog…
So that’s reason one: we like underdog stories because we can see ourselves in them. But the second reason is about God, and hopefully will encourage us even more!
God prefers the underdog
When I read the Bible, I do not see a story of God choosing big or impressive people or things and then deciding to use those. I do not see God starting big, starting impressive, or starting on what looks like it’ll be the ‘winning side’. God, perhaps even more than us, loves the underdog!
So the shepherd boy David defeats the warrior Goliath. So (despite there being lots of impressive nations to choose from) God chooses to work through one man and his faltering family who become a nation but by no means the biggest or the strongest. So Jesus welcomes little children when others try to keep them away. So the poor, the ill, the outcasts, the sinners are all welcomed in while the elites often count themselves out of what Jesus is doing. The more I read the Bible, the more I see how true it is that “God opposes the proud but shows favour to the humble.” (James 4:6)
And Jesus is the greatest example of this. Not a mighty warrior or political ruler. A baby born into weakness, who grew up with a humble trade and then focused on training a few people from equally humble backgrounds before dying a criminal’s death. But through it all he starts a revolution that has changed the world, and has won the greatest victory imaginable, making it possible for us to know God in a personal and eternal way. It’s the perfect underdog story!
God seems to delight in using very little things to do very big things! On Sunday at Pathway Church, we explored these words from Jesus about this:
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” (Matthew 13:31-33)
This is how Jesus says God’s Kingdom (his realm and rule) works: small things are used to do big things! And this plays out in a couple of ways.
In one example (the seed) a tiny thing grows to become a big thing that then brings blessing to the world around it. No matter how small you or something you’re involved in is (as a church, we are not very big at all!), God can bring growth, and can bring strength and endurance that you’d never expect just looking at a tiny little seed. He can, and he loves to!
In the other example (the yeast) a tiny thing doesn’t grow but has an effect far bigger than itself. Yeast doesn’t just add to the dough. It makes the dough multiply, expand and rise. God loves to use small things and people to do things far beyond anything they could ask or imagine!
So if you feel like an underdog, join the club! But also hear this: that is exactly the kind of person that God seems drawn to, that God loves and loves to use in mighty ways. Our church is full of underdogs, just ordinary people on a journey with God and asking that he might take us as a seed and grow a tree, might take us as yeast and cause things to flourish, grow and rise!
What’s your underdog story? And where can you find courage in the midst of it? My tip: the God of the underdog is the best place to start!