Here's to all the Losers
I love the NFL playoffs. For one thing, it's the only time I get to watch American football here in Mexico. The reception on my rabbit ears isn't the best (anybody remember those?), and I have to listen to commentators in Spanish echoing the English commentary in the background. It can give you a headache!
But it's lots of fun to root for my team (GO COLTS!), and even to watch the other teams play. For some reason, even when it's not my team, I find myself rooting for the underdog. I don't know if it's just me, or if that's a part of human nature. I'd say it is a big part of me. It explains a lot about why I am a missionary, pulling for an underdog country like Mexico. But it must be some part of human nature, or how would you explain yet another "Rocky" movie?
If it is human nature, it must be leftover from before the fall, because it seems to be God's nature too. The last shall be first, the greatest is the servant, of such is the Kingdom of Heaven, etc. Jesus picked the "losers" to be his disciples (see Acts 4:13), and he chose to be a loser himself in the world's eyes (Phil. 2:7).
So, when I find myself discouraged with the work in Mexico, and when it seems nothing is going right, and even if my COLTS lose, (which looks to be a good possibility next Sunday), I find myself in pretty good company. Rooting and working for the underdog can get tiresome and discouraging; in the real world the underdogs usually lose. But if there's a core message in the Gospel, it's that someday the underdog will come out on top. All of the so-called "winners" will lose, and all of us "losers" will win. Here's to all the Losers!
