The remnants of Fay are blowing though our neighborhoods in north Georgia. I was driving home yesterday and just missed a tornado that smacked Oakwood. It was only a small bit of excitement in this crazy life of mine. Back home Michael and Kathy Hindes are staying with us and we had a good time staying up late and laughing about who knows what. It was much more salubrious than watching the democratic convention. These conventions remind me of pro wrestling matches – all scripted, full of posturing and mugging for the camera. We who are struggling to find reality hardly need more plastic behavior in such a superficial, supercilious world.
Obama and McCain may be neck and neck in the polls, but McCain is proclaiming himself the underdog in the elections. Why is that? It’s because something in us pulls for the underdog. Maybe it’s because we feel compassion for the weak. Maybe it’s because we like a surprise, and what better surprise than to see a come-from-behind victory. Sometimes it’s because we don’t like the pride we see in the favorite. We want to see him “get his.”
Truman upsetting Dewey, Appalachian State upsetting Michigan, and then there’s Jesus taking down the entire Holy Roman Empire.
You couldn’t have dreamed up a more unlikely mismatch. A tyrannical state whose rulers ruthlessly murdered opponents in ever-more creatively horrific ways versus a man without so much as a sword living in a two-bit satrap-run protectorate on the fringes of its map.
Hardly a fair fight, yet within 300 years, caving to pressure from the masses, wanting to co-opt a power he couldn’t understand, Emperor Constantine proclaimed the faith Jesus started his own faith. And in our time it continues to be the dominant faith worldwide, growing faster than Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Of all the improbable upsets, this is the greatest.
What a hero Jesus is! What a come-from-behind victory he engineered! How our hearts swell within us when we begin to understand the enormity of what he accomplished. And every day, around the globe, millions of underdogs whom he called poor in spirit, turn the tables on the Goliaths in their lives as they emulate the example of the ultimate underdog.
love the example of Appalachian State upsetting Michigan. That was great. What will be even better is Sat. when Georgia Southern beats UGA….. lol this GSU fan just ran with one of your examples in your blog. 🙂
yeah!!! i love being a christian!:)
OK, Beth – I’m holding you to that prediction!
Thank you for your words Seth.
Not that it matters much, but Constantine only established religious tolerance in the Roman Empire.
It was Theodosius, 70 years later, who declared Christianity the state religion.
Nothing is impossible thru Christ Jesus. And for those who don’t know Him yet, the simple fact that you are here is a pretty good indication that you want to know more. I’m guessing that the overcoming spirit in you will draw you closer as you learn that He was/is the great overcomer.