Sometimes the Underdog Does Win!
Who doesn’t love an underdog storiy? Those stories of David conquering Goliath. Those stories of the little scrawny kid who always gets picked last but keeps coming to play, eventually getting his or her chance. Those stories when someone says, “But, you see, I have the other slipper.”
In literature we have that story of Cinderella who, despite her wicked stepmother’s best efforts, gets to meet her Prince Charming. Who can forget the Miracle on Ice when a group of American collegiate and amateur hockey players beat the powerful Soviet Union national team 4-3 during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid. How about two of the most watched sports movies of all time. Rudy, the true story of Rudy Ruettiger who despite many obstacles lives out his dream of playing football for Notre Dame. And Hoosiers, the fictional account of a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that wins the state championship, beating all the big powerhouse teams along the way.
One of the biggest upsets in college football history took place on September 1, 2007, when the little-guy Appalachian State Mountaineers upset the mighty Michigan Wolverines before 109,000 stunned fans in what is known as The Big House. And earlier this year, in college basketball’s March Madness, the #15 ranked St. Peter’s Peacocks advanced all the way to the Elite Eight, before losing to North Carolina.
Have you ever wondered where the word “underdog” came from? It is commonly thought to have originated from dog fighting, in which the winning dog ended up on top and the losing dog was on the ground, under the winner. So, there you have it, the origin of both top dog and underdog. We also get the idiom “pit against” from that same scenario; the dogs went against one another in a pit.
Just as there are underdogs in sports and literature, there are also people in our midst who face considerable odds; we might say the odds are stacked against them. How about that single mom who is working three jobs to support her kids. The inner-city boy who lives in poverty. The teenage girl who finds herself pregnant. The refugee who barely speaks English. Or that elderly neighbor who just seems to be always be alone. We all know someone who is an underdog. It could even be that today, the underdog looks back at you in the mirror every morning.
The Bible makes it clear that we are to care for those who cannot always care for themselves; those people who always seem to be underdogs. In Deuteronomy 10:18 we read that “He (the LORD) defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.” Still in the Old Testament, we see a similar theme, in Zechariah 7:10 – “Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.”
In Luke 4:18, Jesus himself tells us that part of His ministry is to proclaim good news to the poor, offer freedom to the prisoners, give sight to the blind, and set the oppressed free. (He is quoting directly from Isaiah 61.)
We have all been underdogs at one time or another in our lives. Look around and see where you can help those who have been marginalized by society. Each of us can actively participate in helping to turn underdogs into top dogs, sometimes against all odds!
If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.