Tag: underdogs

Helping Those in Need

Obadiah
Psalm 82-83

Many of the Psalms point to our hearts and minds bringing praise, glory, and honor to God.  Some also provide instruction for living, as we find in Psalm 82.  Psalm 82:3-4 says, “Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.  Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

Providing help and justice for those in need is a theme we find throughout the Bible.  The Mosaic law supports this (Deuteronomy 10, 15, 22), the prophets support this (Isaiah 58), the gospels support this (Matthew 25, Luke 10), and the New Testament letters support this (James 1, I John 3).  As we see this theme come up in Psalm 82, we should recognize this does not stand alone within Scripture, but fits within the context of the whole.

Psalm 82 verses 3 and 4 stand in stark contrast to verse 2.  Verse 2 asks, “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked?”  We have a propensity to long after our own gain, which sometimes causes us to support the unjust and wicked.  This should not be the case.  Instead, we should defend the weak and fatherless, maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed, and rescue the weak and needy.

The underdog story makes for great sports.   The 1980 “Miracle on Ice” when the USA beat the Soviet Union in Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey.  The 1983 upset of North Carolina State over Houston for the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Championship.  Rulon Gardner, who won gold in wrestling in the 2000 Olympics over heavily favored Aleksandr Karelin of Russia.  These underdog stories are easy to spot, since each team or individual was clearly not favored to win.  However, in our lives, I believe it is much more challenging to spot the underdogs in life around us.

Who are the people we should be working so hard to defend, rescue, and maintain their justice?  Are they as easy to spot as the sports underdogs?  Maybe it is easy to see they are poor, or weak, or needy.  Maybe they are the people who are clearly ‘outcasts’ within our social settings because they don’t match the norms of interaction.  However, maybe they are a little harder to see, but we are still called to defend, rescue, and maintain their justice.  I think of our friends who are close talkers, who interrupt when others are speaking, or who struggle with social interactions.  Do we provide for them defense and rescue, or do we relegate them to solitude and the outskirts of our attention?  Sometimes it’s easy to see the needs of those we can help and other times it is far more challenging.

Putting Psalm 82:3-4 in action is more than giving money to a service ministry.  We can give out of our abundance but we can also show kindness to those in need around us every day.  Be encouraged to look for those in need in more diverse places around you, or in more diverse people around you!

-Michael Cisler

Reflection Questions

Who is someone you see regularly who may be weak, oppressed, or needy in ways other than financial or physical?

How can we provide support and defense for those who are socially awkward around us?

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Underdogs Unite!

Old Testament: Joshua 7-8

Poetry: Psalm 48

New Testament: 1 Corinthians 3 

Kung Fu Panda 

Peter Parker (Spiderman)

Cinderella

Frodo Baggins

Luke Skywalker

King David

Jesus’ disciples

What an eclectic list of characters! Any guess on what they have in common? 

They were all underdogs, devalued by society, and yet through some combination of luck, magic, leadership, divine appointment, and/or wise counsel, they went on to do mighty things. Though some characters in that list are fictional, there are plenty more true accounts in the pages of your Bible and in ancient and recent history of people overcoming opposition and obstacles to become the Greats we know today.  

In I Corinthians 1, we read about how we were nothing special before we were saved by God’s grace and grafted into his family, that He often chooses the “underdogs” to do His work. In chapter 2, Paul reiterates that we need the wisdom and power of the Spirit in order to understand and speak the things of God; Paul clarifies that even he, who we now know as one of the greatest missionaries of all time, “did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God… My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (verses 1, 4-5). Now, in the third chapter, while recapitulating to the Corinthians how we are all foolish without God, Paul is addressing quarrels and jealousy among the believers, reminding the Church how important it is to be united. 

I bet that a lot of the same words he wrote to the people back then would also be penned to us today; we humans can still tend to think we’re all that and a bag of potato chips with no need for God, and division still dominates our fleshly nature. As a mom, I’ve broken up more quarrels than I can count; it seems that my kids will find a reason to argue with each other about anything and everything! And as the wife of a pastor, I’ve seen division rear its ugly head in the church too many times. Churches have even split over petty things such as decor. It seems silly that we find trivial things to bicker about when there are bigger issues plaguing the world today such as war, poverty, and human trafficking. 

In this chapter, Paul emphasizes that we are all working together for God, but God is the real Force that makes anything happen. Paul reminds us that we are all on the same team, building on the foundation laid by Jesus Christ. In typical Paul fashion, he keeps us humble by reminding us of our foolishness; in modern-day terms, though we might have thick wallets or a string of letters behind our names indicating our importance in this world, we are all nothing without God. 

I’m always encouraged when I see Christians set aside their differences to work as one unit for a good cause, or when churches with very different doctrines join hands to reach their communities for Christ. We are meant to be one body: the body of Christ. It is crucial that we as believers unite hands and hearts for God’s eternal mission. 

-Rachel Cain

Reflection:

– Consider ways that you can help create unity and decrease division within your own church family. (A good place to start is to not participate in gossip). 

– Are there any local organizations with which your church or your own family could join to show the love of Jesus to your local community? State? The world? 

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The Underdogs

used by God

Moses is one of the most real people in the Bible. What I mean by this, is that in reading his interactions with God, often times, his responses are not ultra-spiritual, but rather down to earth and matter of fact. For example, when God tells him he has been chosen to free his people from Egypt, Moses tells God “nope, sorry! You’ve got the wrong guy! I don’t do public speaking, I’m shy…find someone else.” (paraphrasing Exodus 3). Moses does this time and time again throughout his story . What’s so great, is that God puts up with Moses. In fact, he made him one of the most famous people in scripture. That knowledge reassures me that God can handle whatever sass I may throw at him. That when I am angry and fed up with him, that I can be just as real as Moses was. That when I pray and talk to God, I don’t have to act like I’ve got it all together and sound super spiritual. I can just be me. God will not reject me when I doubt or complain. He may be a bit annoyed with me, but he won’t abandon me. I’ll never be too much for him. That’s the first lesson we can learn from Moses.

The second thing that Moses teaches us is that our weakness does not limit us in our ability to serve the LORD. Several years ago, a bunch of contemporary Christian artists got together to make an album called The Story with songs designated for each major Bible story. Bart Miller, the lead singer for MercyMe sings “It Must Be You” a song for Moses. Right now, go open up a new tab in your browser and type in “It Must Be You the story” click on the first video that pops up and listen to that song.

Moses’ life in itself is a miracle. He was supposed to die as a baby – murdered by the pharaoh, not taken in to be his ward. Moses was a stutterer and afraid. He wasn’t supposed to lead an entire nation – and yet, through God’s power, he did. God sees something in each and every one of us. Potential to do great things for him and through him.

I know this because I see God at work in my own life. You see the chorus to that song “It Must Be You” is my life’s anthem. I wasn’t supposed to succeed. In second grade I was diagnosed with ADHD and tourettes. In fifth grade, I was diagnosed with OCD. My OCD and tourettes were so bad, I was taken out of public school and homeschooled. I could hardly go into public places without freaking out. I was scared of germs and scared of soap. It was completely debilitating.

But somehow by the grace of God, I recovered. I defeated tourettes, I learned how not to let it control me. I graduated high school seventeenth in my class of 586. I went to college on a full tuition scholarship. I picked up a minor in speech communication and found how much I enjoy and how good I am at public speaking. I recently graduated with high honors. Now the little girl who would freak when a stranger touched her arm has plans to attend the Bible College this coming August.

The story of Moses teaches us that with God there are no limitations. In fact, we serve a God that invites the challenge. When we succeed, he wants to ensure that people know it was because of him. That’s why he picks the underdogs, the Moseses. It’s why he’s chosen you.

-Emilee Ross