Stories of the Underdog

The Unlikely Heroes

This other day I watched an old favorite of mine, the 1992 Disney musical “The Newsies.” Just a few days later I watched the made-for-TV movie “The Fall of Sam Axe,” a spin-off prequel of the hit USA Network show “Burn Notice.” These two movies would seem an unlikely pairing for this post, if not for a common theme in both of them: the victory of the underdog. In fact, this theme appears often in American films and television. Hollywood loves a good underdog story. Up against the worst odds, the triumph comes to the unlikely hero.

But there was a place long before Hollywood where we see plenty of underdog stories—the Bible. David and Goliath, Gideon and his 300 men...the Lord delights in using the humble and the weak, that we may know nothing we have done is by our own strength, wisdom, or might, but solely through the grace and power of God!

His Grace is Completely Sufficient

This is meant to be tremendous encouragement for us. Whether you are sharing with a friend about Jesus, or feeling completely drained of all strength, or whatever activity of life you are doing, His grace is sufficient for you, for His power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Our strength is found in remaining in Jesus, the True Vine (John 15).

When we are living lives completely dependent on the Lord, people will take notice. In Acts 4:13, the apostles Peter and John are before the Sanhedrin after healing a man in the Name of Jesus. The members of the powerful Sanhedrin were astonished because they saw the boldness of these men, and “perceived they were uneducated, common men…they recognized they had been with Jesus.” How amazing that the Lord uses the ordinary to do extraordinary things, and that when we are weak, He is strong! (2 Corinthians 12:10). 

Encouragement

So brothers and sisters, let us humble ourselves before the Sovereign Lord and stop trying to run on our own strength. Rather, let the joy of the Lord be our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). And be encouraged that God does not choose to use us as the world chooses, based on outward appearance—the charm, the good looks, the strength, but He looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). 

Blessings,

Joanne Michelle

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

                                                             -1 Corinthians 1:26-31, ESV