Rooting for the Underdogs
“What does this incident have to do with the man I have become?” you might ask. While I’m certainly not a veterinarian or dog trainer now, there’s something about the plight of these orphaned pups that pulled at my heartstrings so powerfully that I could not resist helping them, nurturing them, and finding a way for them not only to survive but thrive. I didn’t help them out of a sense of moral obligation or a guilt-triggered feeling of having to do the right thing. No, I was clearly supposed to find them and perform the joyful privilege of offering what I had to give.
Reflecting on this memory as a microcosm of what I do in my life now, I am still drawn by the challenge of caring for the underdogs, those people who are at the end of their rope and at the bottom of the barrel, individuals who may appear to have everything but are emotionally orphaned inside, secretly feeling just as helpless as those puppies. People whom others have given up on and who may want to give up on themselves. I’m not Superman and certainly do not have a Messiah complex, as the clinicians label people who must save others in order to feel good about themselves. I simply have an awareness of my purpose that dates back to a time when caring for a litter of helpless puppies was as natural to me as breathing.
Over the past thirty-five years, I’ve spent my life interacting with an amazing diversity of people around the world. I’ve been privileged to pray with tribesmen in the African bush, address children in New Zealand, and sing gospel hymns with women in prison. I’ve continually been blessed by these encounters and received more than I think I gave them, learning to appreciate that we are all more alike than different, more full of light than darkness, more full of love than violence.
However, we don’t always see ourselves the way others are able to see into us, whether they be relatives or not.
I believe we often fail to make the connections between where we started on our journey and the place where we currently find ourselves.
My hope is that this book will help you gain insight into what prevents you from being the husband you want to be, the wife you long to be, the mother or father you know is inside you, the creative person you were born to be — the most successful version of you possible! The following pages will change your life if you take my message to heart. And it won’t be easy! I’m not suggesting methods for trimming the hedges of your behavior but for getting to the bitter roots of the issues that consistently strangle your potential. But it will be more than worth the effort to free yourself from a burden that’s been crippling you for far too long.
T.D. Jakes is the CEO of TDJ Enterprises, LLP; founder and senior pastor of The Potter’s House of Dallas, Inc.; and the New York Times bestselling author of Making Great Decisions (previously titled Before You Do), Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits. He lives in Dallas with his wife and five children. Visit T.D. Jakes online at TDJakes.com.
