Dr. Shaun MatakoI love the underdog. That slightly underrated and underestimated individual that rarely gets a sniff from society. They’re too short, too tall, too light, too heavy, too simple, too complicated, too this, that and the other. Yet inside the underdog is an individual with explosive ability to change the world they live in. They have a hidden potential to become champion that perhaps they themselves are unaware of. Let me share an example.

An underdog shepherd named David was overlooked as having potential. His father didn’t think that he had leadership potential and didn’t even call him in from the fields when he was told one of his sons would be the next king. His brothers didn’t think he had soldier potential and told him to leave the battlefield and go back home to the farm. The King didn’t think he had champion potential and tried to dress him up in someone else’s armor. Finally, Goliath didn’t think he had opponent potential and threatened to scatter his flesh to the birds. David was an underdog, but God saw the potential in his heart, and raised a Champion who would become King.

Growing up I was the short kid. I was the one that got picked last and got sat out first. I loved to play. Whether baseball, basketball or football, I carried a ball with me at all times and watched and learned and studied the “big kids”. In seventh grade I played football but never got in. My parents thought it was a waste of time. In fact, they wouldn’t even buy me spikes. I had to wear my brother’s which were so big that I stuffed them with newspaper to keep them on my feet. But all I needed was a chance. All I wanted was to try. If I failed, they’d all be right, but somebody please give me the chance. Against one of our biggest rivals, our starting defensive back got hurt. Then Coach Lapps looked my way and said, “Don’t let me down.”

It was first and goal on the 8-yard line. The quarterback surprisingly dropped back for a pass. Somehow, I instinctively saw it coming. I stepped in front of the receiver at the 4-yard line, intercepted the pass and headed for the endzone. I had lost my shoes around the 40-yard line and ran the last sixty yards with my socks flapping behind me. I never sat the bench again.

I believe that their lives a champion in every person. I further believe that my purpose and calling in life and ministry is to look into the hearts of individuals and see them not only for who they are, but for who they can become. Though they’re often too this, that or the other, I want to challenge the heart of the underdog, tap into that hidden potential and raise the champion in a person, a family and even a community.