March Madness in Real Life:

The time of year has come when basketball is everywhere, college basketball that is.  It is time for the NCAA championship to be the best basketball team in the land.  I personally am not the biggest follower, but I love watching my friends and family fill out their brackets and then talk about the different games.  I love seeing their joy when they get a game pick right and laugh a little at their slight dismay for being wrong.  I know that all of the people in my life are having fun with this and are not making it a serious guessing game or competition.  

Something that is always fun, though, about the March Madness tournament is the upsets.  There is something that everyone loves to see in watching an underdog take over the game.  It is wonderful to watch a team do a lot better than most people, and even themselves thought possible.  While I was pondering this, I thought about how that is exactly what God does with us.  God was not known for using the highest known people to start revolutions in the Bible.  There were times when he used kings and judges to complete his tasks.  However, he often used a lower cast, out-of-the-blue person to be someone who did great things for his kingdom.  

One of my favorite examples of this is any of the women that Jesus used for his ministry.  When Jesus was alive, there were not a lot of women that had high positions or were hardly ever talked about or talked to.  However, Jesus was very good about making connections and using women to really shape and grow the Christian community.  For example, the first person to see Jesus after he was resurrected from the grave was a woman, Mary Magdalene.  Not only was she a woman, but she was not a prominent woman by society’s standards.  She was not from a rich family and was even considered to be a sinner (by this I mean, someone who was living in sin, possibly prostitution, but we can’t be 100% sure) by everyone who knew her at the time.  

Besides just the Bible references, there are references since that time.  God is still continuing to use the average person to build a Christian world.  I am still continuing to read John Piper’s book, “The Swans are not Silent” or “21 Servants of Sovereign Joy,” which showcases Christian followers who are just average people that have also been used for the glory of God.  One of those is John Bunyan.  Many of you maybe have heard that name in the past because he was actually the writer of the book, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”  This is one of the most popular books and maybe the most read and popular book besides the Bible in regards to the Christian walk.  However, what many people may not know is that a part of this book was written while he was serving in jail.  Similar to Paul in the Bible, the Lord was using a prisoner to complete his best work.  

It is often important to remember that God wants to do the same thing for us in our lives.  I know that I am just a Spanish teacher.  I live in a small town in Iowa.  I am not what many would call rich (by American standards anyway, by otherworldly standards I am).  I am not a prominent leader in any country.  I am not of high standing.  However, I believe that God has put me in this place for a particular reason.  He has chosen me to be the teacher to the students that I am, and I know that he wants me to put an impact on their lives.  I have also been chosen to work at a nonprofit in the summer, and I absolutely love that opportunity that I have.  

The last thing that I want to mention is the song, “Nobody,” by Casting Crowns and Matthew West.  This song highlights that God does take nobodies and use them for his glory.   The main lyrics are, “I’m just a nobody, trying to tell everybody, all about somebody who saved my soul.”  We are all or should be nobodies that are trying to tell somebody or the world about the only one that matters and that is Jesus Christ.  What are some of the ways that God can use you?  What are some of the blessings that God has given you that can be used to make an impact on the world?  What are some of your gifts that can be used for the future?  Lastly, are you just a nobody that is trying to tell everybody all about Jesus?  I hope that I am.  I think that if Jesus had a March Madness bracket, it would be filled with a lot of underdogs, and that is just a beautiful thing.