He might not like to admit it, but Christian gospel singer Kirk Franklin is a huge fan of movies such as Cinderella.
Franklin loves the story of the underdog, and how they inspire people with their unexpected journey to success. "I love it when the person or the team that everybody ignored shocks the world. And I also love when you hear the back story on that team and find out all of the mountains, hard work put into competing against people that may have had more, may have been stronger, or just looked more like 'winners,'" he wrote in his Patheos blog.
And this is why he is so impressed by Cinderella - because her character, just like the rest of the underdogs, fights for her chance for a happy ending. All the underdogs know that it will not be handed over to them on a silver platter.
In fact, there are a lot of Cinderellas in the Bible, says Franklin. "David's daddy overlooked him. Rahab's job didn't really qualify her to be in the 'hall of faith."' And my homie — good old stuttering Moses – well, he would've had his own reality show now if he was still here!" he quipped.
Franklin called them nobodies, rejects, and the looked-overs. But still, people loved them and dreamed through them.
And that is why he is stressing that the underdogs should never indulge in self-pity or complain about their situation, because negativity will get people nowhere.
"Many people I've met are some of the most negative people in the world: everything is a conspiracy theory or a reason to not even try. Don't those kind of people just suck the dreams out of you?" he said.
Some people actually give up on their dreams even before trying for a shot at it, and Franklin thinks that's such a waste of an opportunity.
"Living for God and a great work ethic go hand in hand. They should actually fuel each other," he said. "You should see your life as a gift from God on borrowed time. You want to maximize that gift as a method to show your appreciation to God for giving it to you in the first place."
