Okay I might as well jump on the hype about Tim Tebow.
I was only a peripheral observer of his career in college — (I watched him and his team beat Ohio State twice in the national championship game) — and since I can’t bring myself to care about the NFL, I just saw headlines that he was a Bronco and that (I guess) he isn’t a good pro-style quarterback.
But he is generating a lot of attention. The hype seems one-part, “I can’t believe someone actually believes Christianity is true and not just someone to point to after a touchdown.” One part, “Can you believe how bad he is for 3 quarters and then finds a way to win?” And one part, “Finally a quarterback to talk about that is not Brett Favre.”
And typical with controversy is the division of reactions. On one side you have the haters: the ones who are foaming at the mouth to see Tebow fail, either morally or professionally. On the other side are the true believers that moved Tebow to the top of the prayer list so people see that righteousness can be rewarded. But that is not the story — that’s not the spark that caused this blaze.
The fire was started because the world took notice of someone who is not trivial, in a world of trivialities. Just as light dispels darkness, weighty things always displace light things. Amazing talent and hard work is common in the NFL. But not goodness. And Tebow demonstrates that accomplishment is trivial, but goodness is glorious.
Of course, Tebow’s accomplishments are his megaphone, but his goodness, informed by his faith, is the content that screams that we were all made for another world: the ignored world where faith and goodness (righteousness) matter, not salary, biceps, or how fast you run 40 yards.
I once read somewhere a music icon’s grief over the memorial tributes at the Grammy Awards. Somewhere along the way in the reward ceremony, people who have died in the music business are projected on a screen with appropriately sad, but hopeful music. These are always nice tributes, the author states, except for the applause.
So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).
In C.S. Lewis’s “Horse and His Boy” two horses and their riders are racing back to Archenland to warn the king of their enemies, who are arriving unaware. Although they are going fast, the horses are not quite running as fast as they could. Suddenly a lion jumps out of the thicket and begins to pursue the horses, who find that they could run faster. Later we find that the lion was Aslan himself, scaring the horses to run at their true speed because they they needed to go faster because of the pursuing army.
One of the greatest sources of misery in our lives flows from “if, then” living. The attitude goes like this: “If I get life right by doing right things or believing right things, then life will go the way I want it to.” This is the essence of the law: “if you are careful to obey everything written in the book of the law, then I will bless you and things will go well with you” (Deuteronomy 30:16).