The gospel according to ‘others’ who never make the top ten

Celebrate the fair players too because they did not give up

For some reason, I have been pondering over this common saying, “______ is not for the fainthearted.”

Fill the blank with something difficult that one achieves in life, for example, “Marriage is not for the fainthearted.”

Here is another one, “Faint heart never won fair lady.”

Now, these sayings are very true in their observation that good things are obtained by those who are courageous enough to fight for them.

But my question is, what happens to the fainthearted? I always feel so much sympathy for the underdog in any story.

So, when Brave Heart and Fair Lady ride off into the sunset, what happens to Faint Heart? Does he wave them off sadly, conceding defeat, or, as a famous African proverb says, does he end up fetching water and running errands at their wedding? (In this day and age, being the good sport that he is, Faint Heart probably ends up on the wedding committee as the one in charge of transport—the most complicated job of all.)

It is great to achieve and win, but not everybody does, no matter what the motivational books say.

I am sure we all know someone who has managed, by the grace of God and sheer grit, to wrest themselves and their loved ones from the vicious grip of poverty.

It is wonderful when the story ends like that, but in reality, let’s say that only 30 percent make it out of poverty.

That leaves a whole 70 percent languishing in extreme want.

Does that mean the 70 percent failed, or did the circumstances of life simply conspire against their success?

In the annals of history, there is a whole tribe of ‘others’—those that never made it to the top 10 list of anything, ever.

I think we should admire ‘others’ more.

There is nothing glamorous about them; they are not trying to fit themselves into a life that is not theirs, they have blazed no trails, broken no records, nor changed the course of history.

However, they keep going, working quietly and faithfully in their non-glamorous roles.

Are you an ‘other’, like me? I celebrate you!