With the recent unbelievable victory of the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals, it has me thinking, "Is God a Pens fan?" While I can't answer that question completely (because I'm not God), this is what I am sure of - God is a fan of underdogs. In fact, God prefers underdogs. Where most see hopelessness or no future, God sees potential and purpose.

In some circles, people have the idea that God is angry and loves to see people mess up so He can 'smite' them or destroy them. This couldn't be further from the truth. God cares about people and is actually constantly striving to redeem their mistakes for their good and the good of His purposes.

What I loved about the Penguins recent championship victory was the fact that no one in the mass media even gave the Pens a chance. Practically every national sportscaster chose the Red Wings to win. The Pens were labeled a 'young team that still needs work'. Have you ever had someone place a label like that on you? Maybe it's the label of 'unemployed' or 'divorced' or 'alcoholic'. It's difficult to overcome labels like these. Sometimes they can seem insurmountable. Well, God loves to take the labels people place on us and completely disprove them. He takes people without potential, with a past of failures and even a present of frustration, and give them a future of hope and purpose.

Are you walking through a hopeless present right now? Do you feel like an underdog, where no one is giving you a chance? Know that there is one who is pulling for you. He's cheering you on and wants to see you make it through! And the incredible thing with this fan is He's the Creator of the Universe. God is for you. God is for the underdog.

There are so many people striving to find completion in this world. I would even venture to say that this urging or prompting is engrained in us as human beings. We look to find completion in our jobs, in relationships, sometimes in the acceptance of others. Whatever it might be, we all want to live a life that is complete. We don't always have a picture of what that is, but we know we want it. The question is, to what extent or to what lengths do we go to achieve that completion?

Individuals will at times sacfrice components of who they are in order to achieve completion. As crazy as that might sound, we're all guilty at some point of comprimising who we are to simply feel complete. But do we have to do that? Isn't there some way we could experience the much-desired completion of our lives while still maintaining who we are?

I would say a big YES! This is where 'who we are' intersects with 'who made us who we are'. There is undoubtably an intelligent designer of this great world and most specifically the complex human race. As we better understand who this 'designer' made us to be and embrace who He is, we will not only experience completion but also experience a greater reality of who we were created to be. It only makes sense that the one who created us would know what completes us. With this in mind, for us to experience the true reality of our humanity, we must experience the true reality of our spirituality.

Questions or comments? Feel free to email me at nickp@mcmnetwork.org