Nothing inspires an underdog like an underdog

​At the last minute last night, I decided to go to our high school football game. My boys were both busy, so I knew I'd be making the long drive to the other side of Richmond alone.

But something kept nudging me to go.

Our kids were huge underdogs. They were playing certainly one of the best teams in the area - they were undefeated - if not one of the better teams in the state.

As I was driving there in the dark and the rain and in the Friday evening Richmond rush hour traffic, I kept telling myself to turn around. What are you doing; this is silly. Go sit in your dry and quiet apartment and watch game 3 of the World Series.

But something wouldn't let me turn around. Something challenged me to keep plowing through the night.

And then there I was. Standing by the fence as our kids rushed into the lockeroom at halftime. And they were winning. I heard one of the kids say, everyone thought we'd be getting blown out by now.

He seemed incredulous and bitter at just the thought of it.

(Uhm, I apologize kid. One of the things I told myself when convincing myself to come watch you was that you'd be getting blown out by halftime and I could head home early and still catch most of game 3 of the World Series....🤷‍♂️).

There's this often used line in sports - 'refuse to lose.'

I decided last night that sometimes refuse to lose looks a lot like 'insist on winning.' Because that is what our kids did last night. They insisted on winning.

Unless I missed it, they didn't throw a single pass all night. In fact, they only ran 3 or 4 different plays the entire night. They just kept running and forcing their way down the field.

Every play, I knew what was coming. So surely the defense did as well. But even when you know what's coming at you, if what's coming at you comes with an insistence that refuses to be stopped, what you know becomes far less useful.

There is nothing like an underdog celebration. As I walked along the edge of the field to my car after the game last night, I kept looking back at our kids celebrating. I was grateful for the memory they will carry with them every day of their life.

It will be an every day reminder for them that the best way to remove the underdog status from your life is deciding you're not going to be one anymore.

It will be an every day reminder that when the whole world believes you'll be blown out by halftime - sometimes it's way more than enough to be the only one who knows you won't be.

As I got in my car and drove away and looked back at these kids, still celebrating, I knew why life insisted I show up for this game.

Because I needed a reminder or two myself.

Thanks kids. You're right. Sometimes underdog is far more mindset than reality.