Tip #37: Watch Out For the Underdog!
I'm not into college football much unless my team is playing, the University of Central Florida (UCF) Golden Knights. I have two degrees from UCF so I can say legitimately say "my team". It's okay, we'll welcome all bandwagoners with open arms. For those of you that are mumbling under your breath, I already know that we're not a big team in the SEC, ACC, or any of those other conferences. Either way, I started UCF in the fall of 1998 as a freshman and back then, we had Daunte Culpepper as the "star player". I don't remember much about the team after that (probably because there wasn't really anything worth remembering). I would always go to the games and see a few wins (and quite a few losses). Over the past few years, our team has suffered some setbacks but this didn't stop the guys from working hard and this past season, it has paid off. It's like our team went from being known just in Orlando, to nationally in the blink of an eye. We had some huge wins this year which gained the attention of quite a few new fans and commentators. I was surprised to find out that we made it to one of the BCS Bowl games. Unfortunately, things didn't look too good as our opponent was Baylor. This bowl game had the largest point spread (17 points) favoring Baylor. Simply put, out of all five games in the BCS bowls, analysts were the most confident that UCF would lose. Well, they were right about the 17 points (that's how much we were up in the 4th quarter) but UCF caused one of the biggest upsets in BCS bowl history, winning 52-42. In my opinion, this was a modern-day David vs. Goliath story. I couldn't help but scream and yell, while watching every single minute of the UCF vs. Baylor game but what struck me the most is what I'm proclaiming for the year 2014 (and trust me, I hate doing this and normally I don't). I believe (personally) that 2014 is going to be the "year of the underdog" (in my mind, I hear trumpets blaring an awesome fanfare). The UCF vs. Baylor game somehow kicked me in the chest and I began sharing with some of my friends that I'm expecting the same upsets to happen with quite a few people I know. They work hard on the grind, putting in time, energy, and effort only to find that sometimes no one believes in them and that countless odds are stacked against them. It saddens me to see that the "big shots", popular folks, and people that cut corners get recognition. For some reason, I believe the tables are about to turn and that the underdog is about to cause some heads to turn. If you feel like you're the underdog and you're giving it all you've got, keep on keepin' on and as it says in Mark 10:31 "But many that are first shall be last; and the last first." Your moment to shine is just around the corner!
Written 1/12/2014 by John Weaver