Underdog

"Been beat up, been broken down.  Nowhere but up when you're face down on the ground. I'm in last place, if I place at all.  But there's hope for this underdog..."

My taste in music has always been very eclectic; there are just not many forms of the art that I do not enjoy.  As a teenager (1970's) I loved The Beach Boys, Elton John, Chicago, The Eagles, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, John Denver, Fleetwood Mac and Jim Stafford.  Later on I was hooked on The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and many other "classic" rock bands.  I didn't care for disco, but grew to enjoy much of the 80's "new wave" that followed it.  By the late 80's I was beginning to enjoy Christian music, although my knowledge of the genre was limited to artists like Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Rich Mullins and Steven Curtis Chapman.  After moving to Kissimmee in 1994, all of that changed.  At the time I wasn't sure if CCM had gotten that much better, if I had just gotten too old or if 90's music was just that bad- but whatever the case, I was listening almost exclusively to contemporary Christian music- and a wide variety of it!  Looking back (and having watched lots of 90's music specials on VH-1) I can say that 90's music was pretty awful, and CCM had gotten SO much better.  I'll leave the age question alone, although I do like a lot of the stuff my 15 year old listens to now.

By the time I arrived at the Union Church of Hinsdale in 2000, I had been using tapes and CDs as giveaway prizes at youth group for many years.  I had done this (in part) to put some Christian music into the hands of my students.  At UC I ran into a new problem.  They didn't know any Christian artists!  In fact, all you needed to know to communicate with that group of kids on the subject of music was one thing- The Dave Matthew Band.  You were not allowed to be a teenager in the Chicagoland suburbs in 2000-01 if you didn't own several DMB albums.  Being me (read: hard-headed) I kept giving away CCM projects that I felt they might like, including some classics like Jesus Freak and Take Me To Your Leader.  Most of those "prizes" probably never made it home with them.  I didn't think I had any any impact on their listening habits until the day Andy Erskine told me that he really liked the CD he had won at Discovery.  It was Audio Adrenaline's Underdog (1999).  Andy was a gymnast (next Monday I will tell you all about the Hinsdale minor sports obsession!) and he said that he was going to begin using the title track from that CD to get himself fired up during meets.  I was thrilled.  I cannot express to you how important such small victories were to me during my 18 months at UC.

Andy made a great choice.  This song should get you fired up- for Jesus!  You can listen to it below.  Be sure and join me tomorrow as I celebrate 500 consecutive day of blogging with a look back at where we've been.  500 straight days- talk about your underdog stories...




Because of Jesus,