Someone From Ancient Times is Rooting for Your Success

When I think of someone rooting for my success, I begin visualising the energised sideline supporter—fists pumping in high expectation of victory. Or the athletic cheerleader rallying the home crowd.

Similarly, my imagination takes me to the wise, battle-worn coach whose mentoring helps unlock the trainee's potential. I recently watched the emotional footage of Derek Redmond tearing his hamstring in the 400m semi-final at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. The iconic moment of his father Jim, rooting for his son's success, rushing onto the track to help his limping son complete the race was memorable. A 65,000-strong crowd stood to their feet in a standing ovation.

Originating from American sports slang, the phrase "rooting for you" has now broadened. It may appear in the form of an encouraging card, a WhatsApp message, an email from a colleague or loved one just before an exam or job interview. In all these circumstances, I'm drawn to think that the practise of rooting for someone's success very much resides in the domain of the present. The act, or even attitude of rooting for someone's success, seems to be rooted in the land of the living—the here and now.

I don't have any facts or survey data to back up this intuition—let's just put it down to a healthy dose of life experience and a growing list of observations I've stored away.

A Lost Generation

In his viral article titled "The Lost Generation", screenwriter Jacob Savage describes an entire generation being side-lined and discriminated against in certain elite industries. Thankfully, unlike me, he has plenty of facts and data to back up his claims. Savage writes, "On the one hand, you want to celebrate people who have been at a disadvantage. On the other hand, you look and you say, wow, the world is not rooting for you—in fact, it’s deliberately rooting against you.” His article spanned the here and now—between 2014 and 2024. I think Savage's important piece highlights the human cost of exclusion and the ugliness of the culture wars.

Thankfully, there are people thinking deeply and meaningfully about renewal and recovery.

A Sacred Order

John Seel (Ph.D.), in his article "Beyond the Culture of Nihilism", argues that America's culture wars mask something broken at a more fundamental level: "a shared nihilism defined by destruction and the will to power"—basically, a culture of nihilism driven by a desire to destroy.

Seel argues that the real question isn't how do we win the culture war? instead, leaders should be asking how do we rebuild meaning itself? He proposes restoring what the West has lost: a restoration of a shared sacred order in order to experience a renewal of culture. Three legs upon which a sacred order rest are presently lost: authority; plausibility; and, ritual.

In this blog post, I'm concerned with the first leg of the structure. Rebuilding authority to restore the sacred order involves offering a "compelling, beautiful, and true story about life. The rebuild starts with the imagination and often with artists."

Seel is pointing us to look backwards. To tell a cosmic gospel story.

Bear with me, I'm about to land my point.

You Have An Ancient Supporter Rooting For Your Success

I was recently invited to preach at a local church in the suburbs of Greater London (UK). The text assigned to me was John 4:1-26 in which Jesus talks with a woman from Samaria. During my prep, I was reminded of the very purpose for which the Gospel of John was written. John himself states:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20:30-31).

John is rooting for your success. John, the ancient eyewitness and apostle of Jesus Christ, is rooting for your success. His sole intention of narrating the gospel story is for God's glory and your eternal success: that you the reader, two thousand years after its authorship, may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John, wants you to have life. This is real success—to know the only true God:

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (John 17:3)

In fact, John so passionately wants you to have life that he diligently condensed the grandest narrative of the greatest story ever told into twenty-one chapters. From the moment he put ink to papyrus, he was rooting for the eternal success of each reader through each successive generation.

Twenty-one chapters of thunderous, success-rooted, truth-filled joy await you.

Have you read it? Start today.

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