"I found my combine shirt from 17 years ago and it got me thinking...This is what they said about me then....Poor build. Skinny. Lacks great physical stature and strength. Lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush. Lacks a really strong arm. Can't drive the ball downfield. Does not throw a really tight spiral. System-type player who can get exposed if forced to ad lib. Gets knocked down easily. As @edelman11 always reminds me... "You can prove em right or you can prove em wrong".
― Tom Brady
EXODUS 7-8
JOURNAL
Watching the national championship this year reminded me again how wrong the “experts” often are, yet how tempting it still is to want their opinion. Fernando Mendoza and Indiana’s story is one of those things that people act like they can’t explain, and really it shouldn’t be that surprising. But as a society we are obsessed with predicting winners before anything is even played. We want to crown kings and champions ahead of time. I think it has a lot to do with control. We don’t like uncertainty, and we definitely don’t like trusting. We’d rather feel “right” early than actually watch something unfold and be forced to admit we don’t know as much as we think we do.
However, iff we’re talking underdogs, Moses might be the greatest underdog story of all time. Honestly it’s bigger than David and Goliath because Moses wasn’t facing one giant, he was walking straight into Pharaoh’s world and challenging an entire empire. Joseph’s story is similar in the way God uses suffering and detours to set up something bigger, but Moses is different because it’s direct confrontation. It’s God sending one man back into the fire with nothing but God's presence and power.
Moses wasn’t always an underdog. He was raised a prince of Egypt. He knew power, status, and leadership. There are even historical records that mention his skill and ability in military engagements. Then it all fell apart. He kills an Egyptian in defense of a Hebrew slave, panics, runs, and spends the next forty years in the wilderness as a wandering shepherd. Forty years. Forgotten. Hidden. Probably thinking his story was over. So when God calls him to go back and rescue His people, it feels so backwards. God chooses the outcast, the shamed, the outlaw, and sends him straight into the heart of the most powerful system on earth. That is not how humans would write a rescue story.
But that’s the whole point. God’s best work is often done through the rejected, the overlooked, the ones the world is sure are disqualified. He confounds human wisdom with grace. He gives hope to people who’ve been labeled “not enough.” He disrupts the powerful through people who seem powerless, and it’s because God refuses to let our standards become the final word. He doesn’t operate off our script, and thank God for that, because if it was up to us, most of us would never get a second chance.
Then there is the fact that Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. That’s almost funny, but it’s also a reminder. This was never about Moses being impressive. God literally tells him, “I have made you like God to Pharaoh,” and that is a statement of authority that only comes from God. Moses didn’t need to be young. He didn’t need to be strong. He didn’t need to be polished. He just needed to go.
Matthew 17 ties into the same thing. The disciples ask Jesus why they couldn’t drive the demon out, and Jesus tells them it’s because they have so little faith. Then He says if they have faith as small as a mustard seed they can tell a mountain to move and it will move. That’s crazy to think about because the issue wasn’t their lack of knowledge or technique. It was their lack of trust. Real power doesn’t come from trying harder, it comes from trusting, even when logic says you shouldn't.
That’s why I don’t know what I would do without the Bible. These stories have become life rafts in some of the darkest times of my life. And now as my boys are men and facing the adult problems of life, I get to share them and encourage them with the same truth. Because at some point, everyone experiences that feeling that the world is against them, like the verdict is already in. It can feel like a death sentence. But that’s often the exact place where God starts building something new, something stronger, something real.
Jesus said it best: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” That’s not denial. That’s hope. Trouble is real, but it’s not final. And if God is involved, the outcome is never as predictable as people think.
Watching the national championship this year reminded me again how wrong the “experts” often are, yet how tempting it still is to want their opinion. Fernando Mendoza and Indiana’s story is one of those things that people act like they can’t explain, and really it shouldn’t be that surprising. But as a society we are obsessed with predicting winners before anything is even played. We want to crown kings and champions ahead of time. I think it has a lot to do with control. We don’t like uncertainty, and we definitely don’t like trusting. We’d rather feel “right” early than actually watch something unfold and be forced to admit we don’t know as much as we think we do.
However, iff we’re talking underdogs, Moses might be the greatest underdog story of all time. Honestly it’s bigger than David and Goliath because Moses wasn’t facing one giant, he was walking straight into Pharaoh’s world and challenging an entire empire. Joseph’s story is similar in the way God uses suffering and detours to set up something bigger, but Moses is different because it’s direct confrontation. It’s God sending one man back into the fire with nothing but God's presence and power.
Moses wasn’t always an underdog. He was raised a prince of Egypt. He knew power, status, and leadership. There are even historical records that mention his skill and ability in military engagements. Then it all fell apart. He kills an Egyptian in defense of a Hebrew slave, panics, runs, and spends the next forty years in the wilderness as a wandering shepherd. Forty years. Forgotten. Hidden. Probably thinking his story was over. So when God calls him to go back and rescue His people, it feels so backwards. God chooses the outcast, the shamed, the outlaw, and sends him straight into the heart of the most powerful system on earth. That is not how humans would write a rescue story.
But that’s the whole point. God’s best work is often done through the rejected, the overlooked, the ones the world is sure are disqualified. He confounds human wisdom with grace. He gives hope to people who’ve been labeled “not enough.” He disrupts the powerful through people who seem powerless, and it’s because God refuses to let our standards become the final word. He doesn’t operate off our script, and thank God for that, because if it was up to us, most of us would never get a second chance.
Then there is the fact that Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh. That’s almost funny, but it’s also a reminder. This was never about Moses being impressive. God literally tells him, “I have made you like God to Pharaoh,” and that is a statement of authority that only comes from God. Moses didn’t need to be young. He didn’t need to be strong. He didn’t need to be polished. He just needed to go.
Matthew 17 ties into the same thing. The disciples ask Jesus why they couldn’t drive the demon out, and Jesus tells them it’s because they have so little faith. Then He says if they have faith as small as a mustard seed they can tell a mountain to move and it will move. That’s crazy to think about because the issue wasn’t their lack of knowledge or technique. It was their lack of trust. Real power doesn’t come from trying harder, it comes from trusting, even when logic says you shouldn't.
That’s why I don’t know what I would do without the Bible. These stories have become life rafts in some of the darkest times of my life. And now as my boys are men and facing the adult problems of life, I get to share them and encourage them with the same truth. Because at some point, everyone experiences that feeling that the world is against them, like the verdict is already in. It can feel like a death sentence. But that’s often the exact place where God starts building something new, something stronger, something real.
Jesus said it best: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” That’s not denial. That’s hope. Trouble is real, but it’s not final. And if God is involved, the outcome is never as predictable as people think.
JOHN 16:33
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