Monday Morning Devotion-March 7, 2020

The Underdog

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.    John 14:13-14

           Business was slow that evening at the Hy-Vee grocery store in Cedar Falls, Iowa, so two cashiers were standing by their registers talking.  They were also watching the tall, muscular, and handsome stockman on his aisle arranging the cans of soup neatly with the label on each one facing out so the customer could easily identify the kind of soup it was.

            Not noticing that the "stock boy" had walked up to the next aisle and could hear their conversation one cashier said to the other: "Wonder how old he is and how long he will be working here?"

            Kurt Warner stepped up and answered the question for her in a pleasant manner. "I'm 23 years old and I'm just working here until I can get a job playing football in the National Football League."  Then he turned and went back to work leaving the two embarrassed girls standing with their mouths open. "Then one said to the other: "Right.  He's going directly from this nowhere job to football fame and fortune in the NFL.  In your dreams fella!"

            This devotion is based on a true story.  OK, maybe I made up the part of the story about the cashiers, but it is a true story about a man of faith, Kurt Warner, who went from the obscurity of stocking shelves at a small grocery store for $5.50 an hour to become a starting quarterback in the National Football League.  Kurt Warner proved that God can answer even the wildest, most unlikely dreams if you have faith in Him and do your part.

            An "underdog" according to the dictionary is: "a competitor thought to have little chance of winning a fight or contest; a person who has little status in society" or as we read the sports pages, we will see that games in every sport have a predicted winner and a loser who is called the underdog.

            Kurt Warner is now considered the NFL's Greatest Undrafted Player.  Not only was he not picked by any team in the college draft, but he also went four years without being on the roster of any NFL team. He had to play in the Arena Football League for the Iowa Barnstormers for 3 years and of course, logging in his time at Hy-Vee groceries.

            More about Kurt later but first let's consider what God has done with some other underdogs in the Bible.  Keep in mind that none of these were drafted by the NFL either.

            Gideon:  Don't know how many points Gideon would have been considered an underdog by when God picked him to beat the mighty Midianites.  But I do think the underdog odds would have risen considerably when God trimmed Gideon's troops down to 300 inexperienced and untrained farmers to battle thousands of trained Midianite troops.  Of course, Gideon's guys routed the Midianites because God was with him.

            David:  Oh yes, the little shepherd boy going against the giant Goliath armed with nothing but a slingshot and some rocks.  The odds makers would have had fun with this one until the short-lived battle was over and David was triumphant.

            Paul:  His chances of ever becoming one of the most devoted and dynamic follows of Jesus and The Way, after all the Christians he had terrorized and even slain made him and underdog.  He is an example that God can work miracles even through extreme circumstances and impossible challenges. 13 books of the Bible were written by Paul and innumerable conversions to Christ resulted from his teaching.

            Moses:  You must admit that Moses was a pretty big underdog when it came to rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt. He killed an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite slave and hid out as a shepherd for forty years.  When Moses was 80 years old God used him to bring the entire Israelite nation safely out of captivity.

            Daniel:  Thrown into the Lion's Den, how big of an underdog were Daniel's odds of escaping alive? Well, if you are talking about man's odds they were huge.  If you are considering God's odds, then Daniel catapults out of underdog status to ultimate winner because he stayed faithful to God.

            There are many more underdog stories in the Bible and in life but to bring the Kurt Warner story to a close:  A movie about his life was released on Christmas Day 2021 and has been in theaters since then.  It is now on the internet.  I saw it on Amazon.

            In 1998, at the age of 27, Kurt Warner's dream to play in the NFL came true and he was signed to be a backup QB (3rd string) with the St. Louis Rams.  Then as fate would have it (and we know Who controls fate) Warner had moved up to 2nd string. So, when the starter Trent Green went down with a torn ACL...BOOM... guess who was now the starting QB?

            So, what did Warner do with this dream that was finally being realized.  Well, he went on to pass for 4,353 yards with 41 TD passes and a pass completion rate of 65.1%.  He had thrown 3-TD passes in each of the first three NFL games he started.

            Then he led them to the playoffs and ultimately did the ultimate.  Warner lead the Rams to a Super Bowl victory against the Tennessee Titans. With the world watching that game Kurt Warner set a Super Bowl record with 414 passing yards and with the game tied he threw a 73-yard TD pass to Isaac Bruce with two minutes left.  He threw 45 passes without an interception and was awarded the Super Bowl MVP award.

            Now how's that for the answered prayers of a Hy-Vee stock boy with huge dreams?  Warner's faith in himself and in God never wavered and he was mightily blessed.

            Oh yeah, one more thing.  Kurt Warner is now 50 years old, and his net worth is $50 million. 

            Dream big folks and enjoy what God can do with your dreams!

Prayer:  Thank you Lord for hearing and answering all of our prayers, small ones, big ones and those in between.    Amen!