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The holidays remind us, with their pressures, that there are certain laws that we live within. There’s the social law of society, your family norms and “laws” of tradition, and the laws you place upon yourself to cope and protect. The New Year is a symbolic end to the season of those laws and the chance to chart a new path.
This week’s liturgical reading is Paul’s letter to the Galatians, who feel the pressure of society to uphold the Jewish law of the Torah, including circumcision. This is easy to imagine. When one chooses to act in faith and follow Jesus, it makes you a minority in the view of family, friends, and neighbors who still observe Jewish law. It’s how they have always lived. How would a practicing Jew relate to the foreign concepts that Christ preached?
Paul tells the confused and pressured Galatians that their act of faith has set them free and that it was prophesized that it would happen. They are no longer slaves to the penalties of not observing Jewish laws meant to keep people on the straight and narrow until the Messiah arrived. Christ's followers were justified by their faith and are now adopted. They no longer needed the guardian of the law.
Galatians 3:23-25
Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
Galatians 4:4-7
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Jesus and his followers were the rebels who challenged Jewish traditions and the society that was bent on enforcing them. If Jesus had wanted to live a long life, he would have followed the established track to receive authority to preach to the masses and be paid for it. He chose to follow God’s will.
Maybe that’s why we’re so attracted to the faithful underdog stories. We find inspiration in someone’s dedication to a vision and belief that they can achieve it. We want them to persevere. We get more joy out of unexpected successes than expected ones. Studies have shown that the literal act of witnessing an underdog story gives us hope.
Eddie the Eagle
When Michael David Edwards (Eddie) stepped onto the ski jump at the Calgary Olympics in 1988, he was 20 pounds heavier than the next heaviest competitor. He was ranked 55th in the world and already projected to finish last in the competition. His dream had always been to become an Olympic athlete and he found a way via the lack of ski jumpers from Great Britain.
His extreme farsightedness required him to wear thick glasses under his ski goggles that would start to fog and impede his distance vision. But his heart won over the Calgary crowd who affectionately called him “Eddie the Eagle.”
Eddie had already won by persevering. The establishment viewed him as an embarrassment to the sport and the Olympics that prided itself in elite competition. The British Olympic committee attempted to discourage him and some in the press mocked him.
Eddie was unfazed and self-funded his training and qualification for the Olympics. He did finish last at the Olympics, but he also broke the British ski jumping records in the process. When you click and view the trailer below, you’ll see his coach played by Hugh Jackman shout joyfully to Eddie, “Personal best, and we’re a disgrace!” Isn’t that how we feel about our faith sometimes?
Eddie the Eagle went viral winning the hearts of viewers around the world. But the Olympic committee implemented “Eddie the Eagle” rules that successfully prevented him from competing again. But he will forever be the beloved underdog of ski jumping. Definitely see this movie to lift your spirit.
Underdog Jesus Inspires
Jesus and his disciples were definitely the underdogs of their time in Jewish and Roman societies. There was an order in which Roman occupied Israel functioned in order to keep the peace. But Jesus knew he was there to usher in a new covenant and era prophesized over centuries. But the authorities refused to see it because it didn’t look like what they expected it to be.
Time and time again, Jesus delivered hope to both Jew and Gentile. He chided the elite for their hypocrisy and greed while showing the marginalized that God wanted to extend grace and mercy, not endless punishment. The marginalized heard and believed his radical message in the face of power. I believe our spirit is intentionally wired to resonate with this love of the underdog story so that when Jesus’ message hits us, we hear his voice.
John 10:27
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
Shine on Underdog
We’re all underdogs in life and faith. What is Jesus’ voice calling you to pursue in 2024 that is intimidating to pursue? Did you know what your story is still being written? Sure, your past is written and there is nothing you can do to change it. But it doesn’t mean that you have to be chained to it. Every day of every year, you get to turn to a new blank page and start writing whatever you like.
You have the ability to shine and inspire, just like Eddie the Eagle. Paul said as much in his letter to the Romans telling them that nothing is wasted when it comes to glorifying the Kingdom of God.
Romans 5:3-5
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
So, let your soul shine on into the New Year beautiful child of God. Show the world what you are made of. Galations 6:2 says, “Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.“ Welcome the stranger, visit the sick, give hope to the imprisoned, food to the hungry, drinks to the thirsty, and clothes to the naked. There’s nothing you cannot achieve with God by your side.
This is the way.
When you can't find the light
That got you through a cloudy days
When the stars ain't shinin' bright
You feel like you've lost you're way
When those candlelight of home
Burn so very far away
Well, you got to let your soul shine
Just like my daddy used to say
He used to say, "Soulshine
It's better than sunshine
It's better than moonshine
Damn sure better than rain
Hey, now people don't mind
We all feel this way sometime
You got to let your soul shine
Shine till the break of day"