5 Ways the Orphan Mindset Keeps You Cheering Instead of Creating
Why millions of fans feel powerful for three hours and powerless the rest of their lives
Let’s get real. Most people cheering in stadiums every Sunday have more passion for a team that doesn’t even know their name than for the life they were created to live.
They paint their faces, wear jerseys with another man’s name on them, scream at the TV, and say we won—even though they never stepped on the field. That’s not loyalty. That’s an orphan mindset disguised as fandom.
We see it everywhere. In sports. In church. In business.
But the people aren’t the problem—the system is.
These orphan-making systems were designed to keep you small, trained to make you crave approval, and programmed to measure your worth by how well you perform instead of who you truly are.
Good people trapped in bad systems. That’s the real tragedy.
The school system taught you to earn validation.
The church system told you to perform for acceptance.
The hustle culture told you to prove your value through hard work.
All of it conditioned you to cheer for others instead of create for yourself—to celebrate someone else’s calling while ignoring your own. To be a spectator instead of a player.
You see this in Christianity everywhere you look. Every Sunday, millions of people gather in churches to watch the show, hear another man’s experience of God, and try to grab hold of something real—but the system always fails to deliver.
I lived in Georgia and Texas for seven years combined—smack in the middle of the Bible Belt. I noticed there, more than in any of the seven states I’ve lived in, how cult-like football fandom is.
On Friday nights and Sundays, stadiums and sanctuaries looked the same—different uniforms, same spirit. Both filled with people desperate to belong. Both promising identity through performance while few were truly transforming.
Ironically, just about every pastor in the South opens their sermon with a sports reference. The last thing ever on my mind when I stepped into a church service to meet with God was what’s happening in sports. I’m focused on my faith, my family, and creating freedom.
The same orphan mindset runs through both worlds—the church pew and the stadium seat. And truthfully, church as we know it keeps the orphan identity alive and well.
The System That Feeds on the Fatherless
The sports industry doesn’t just entertain the orphan mindset—it feeds on it.
It thrives on people who need belonging but don’t know identity.
It profits from spectators who crave power but never access it.
It keeps the crowd loud, loyal, and emotionally invested in outcomes that never transform their lives.
Every commercial, ticket sale, and jersey transaction is built on the same promise:
We’ll give you the feeling of family without the responsibility of growth.
It’s the illusion of connection without the cost of transformation.
The system doesn’t want you to become whole—it wants you to stay hungry.
Because the more you crave, the more you consume.
The more you consume, the more control it keeps.
And now, it’s gone even further.
Sports gambling has taken that orphan mindset and monetized it.
It’s not enough to live through the players anymore—people are betting on their performances like their own worth is on the line.
That’s what happens when the orphan spirit gets desperate for control. It trades creation for chance.
Instead of building something that multiplies, it gambles on something it can’t control—mistaking risk for power and adrenaline for aliveness.
It’s false ownership without true investment.
You weren’t made to bet on another man’s game. You were made to play your own.
Here are five ways the orphan mindset keeps you cheering instead of creating—and how to step into sonship and authority.
1. Identity by Association
An orphan doesn’t know who they are, so they borrow identity from something outside of them.
A team. A job. A pastor. A platform.
It’s why fans say we when their team wins and disappear when their team loses. Their sense of worth rises and falls with someone else’s performance.
The truth is you can’t borrow identity—you can only discover it.
2. The Illusion of Belonging
Sports fandom feels like family. The chants, the colors, the shared pain—it’s intoxicating. But it’s not intimacy, it’s imitation.
It’s a system built on performance and loyalty, not love and truth.
That’s why fans turn on their heroes when they fail—their belonging was never unconditional.
The same is true in religion.
In the Bible Belt, people learn to “belong” through conformity—show up, dress right, say the right things.
But that’s not family. That’s performance.
Real belonging isn’t found in a crowd. It’s found in covenant.
3. Vicarious Power
The orphan spirit says I don’t have power, but if I attach myself to someone who does, maybe I’ll feel powerful.
So people live through their teams, their pastors, their favorite influencers.
They wear the jersey because they forgot how to wear the armor.
But Kingdom sons and daughters don’t live vicariously—they live victoriously.
They don’t spectate power. They walk in it.
4. The Us vs. Them Trap
Every orphan system needs an enemy.
It defines itself through opposition. We’re better than them. We hate that team.
That same mindset fuels denominational wars, political rage, and online drama.
It’s not unity—it’s insecurity dressed up as conviction.
The Kingdom isn’t built on competition. It’s built on collaboration with the Father.
5. Temporary Fulfillment, Perpetual Hunger
When your identity is built on wins and losses, you live in emotional poverty.
One moment you’re high on victory, the next you’re drowning in defeat.
That’s why fans live for next season—the same way orphans live for the next relationship, the next breakthrough, the next hit of external validation.
And for some, the next bet.
But sons and daughters don’t chase seasons. They govern them.
From Spectator to Sonship
You were never meant to cheer from the bleachers of someone else’s purpose.
You were designed to play in your own game—to build, create, and rule from the inside out.
The moment you discover who you really are, everything changes.
You stop chasing belonging and start embodying it.
You stop imitating power and start releasing it.
That’s what we do inside The Outlier Council.
It’s not another course or coaching program—it’s a Kingdom activation experience.
We help you heal from the orphan mindset, break free from orphan-making systems, and walk as a true son or daughter of God—without religion, hype, or hustle.
If you’re tired of living like a fan in someone else’s story…
If you’re ready to stop spectating and start creating…
👉🏼 Step into The Outlier Council.
It’s time to stop borrowing identity and start walking in sonship.
BE PURE. STAY SAVAGE. LIVE READY.
