There is just something inspiring about an underdog story. There is a unique, perhaps je ne sais quoi in a story that has absolutely no logical or reasonable explanation for an underdog win. I have always loved those kinds of stories, but recently I realized why.

I am the underdog.

Bear with me, I am not saying I am awe-inspiring, but then again maybe in some way we all have the capacity to be, and perhaps that is a good thing. For many years I was convinced I was a terribly flawed design. Maybe you have felt that way too.

No more.
My identity is being realized.
I am no longer ashamed of who I am in spite of all of my flaws.

Remember that expression, “You can’t fit a square peg in a round hole”? I am a very square peg individual in a very round hole world. What I have come to understand in my affinity for the underdog, what draws me in to the underdog’s character, is their strength within their frailty.

How many sporting events have you been to where one team was completely annihilated? There is no beauty, no glory, in total annihilation; there is great beauty in a courageous comeback. In fact, our spirit rises within us as the losing team takes flight.

I remember a great Stephanie Mabey tune that I have always really liked. It speaks to this type of frailty, “You’re holding me like a figurine you can’t bear to see broken.”

That resonates.

Are you a glass figurine that people are afraid may break?

When our identity is wrapped up in how others see us, we break entirely too easily. It is likely, at least in part, why our aim aught to be to please God, not man (Galatians 1:10). When our identity is firmly rooted in Christ, the arrows may come, but we are not easily penetrated or broken by them.

The best of us tends to bloom in our weakest state.

God’s glory is rarely (if ever), revealed in our strength, surrounded by accolades or our ego being wildly stroked. The beauty, the blessing, is in the frailty, in the brokenness.

In life, when we press into the pain, inevitably we become our own underdog story. People do not intend to watch movies like “Rocky”, if in the end the last punch really does indefinitely knock him down. What makes it worth watching is his continuous fight to get back up when it doesn’t look possible that he could still win.

There is a great deal of humility in a hard win.

That said, what win are you in? Or perhaps better stated, what suffering has brought you to a far greater purpose?

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT)

Paul continually asks the Lord to remove the thorn in his side. God’s response, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

-May God’s power rest firmly in you today through whatever struggle you are facing. His power is being made perfect in our weakness. May we embrace and boast in our weaknesses as they lovingly reveal Jesus Christ in us.