thefourthbrother: the average one

I’ve been watching football January 15, 2012

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The title of this blog probably made you go, “eh?, so what?” After all, millions of people all over the globe watch football, right? But for me this is significant.

I am what you might consider to be an anti-sports fanatic, much in the way, say, Richard Dawkins is an anti-God fanatic, only I’m not as looney. If it is an organized sport, I don’t care to watch or participate. It bores me. My entire life I have ignored football and basketball and baseball and hockey and soccer and wife-carrying. I never get involved in sports discussions because I don’t know the players or the teams or their credit scores so I avoid situations where I might be asked about a recent game and accidentally sound intelligent. The only time I really ever watched any football on TV was as a kid; we would turn off the TV volume and listen to rock music while the football players ran around the field, crashing into each other and falling down. Sometimes it would happen to the beat of the music and it was funny to watch, especially if they were playing in mud or snow or body parts.

My idea of sports involve the great outdoors – you know, that area of the planet that has dirt and muck and bugs and things that can eat you; mountain climbing, Scuba diving, snow skiing and four-wheeling. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because for so many years I was always on the go and just couldn’t sit in front of a TV long enough to get into the games, or maybe it was because I thought they were pointless and maybe, just a little bit, I couldn’t stand the idea of rooting for someone and watching them play bad and lose or play great and lose. To me that would be more agonizing than watching Oprah.

Okay – maybe it wouldn’t be that bad.

But lately I have been watching. Primarily because of one individual.

Tim Tebow.

Everybody is talking about Tebow and his faith. They’ve coined another new word – as if we didn’t have enough new words thanks to Facebook and Twitter – for what he does on the field: Tebowing; the act of dropping to one knee in prayer.

Why is everyone talking about him?

Because he is un-apologetically Christian. He professes faith in God, prays in public, cares about people, wears a purity ring signifying a pledge to remain abstinent until marriage, and he is a positive roll model – something the NFL has been lacking for a long time thanks to countless bloated-ego millionaires.

Tim Tebow is polarizing. You either love him or hate him.

He is loved because of his faith and his position in the spotlight. He is hated for the very same reason. People are praying he will stay faithful to his God and others are praying he will fall – hard – so they can laugh at his faith and ridicule it.

Whether he is ever going to be a great football player doesn’t really fit into the equation.

I don’t really know anything about him other than what I have been hearing, but he has me watching football, curious to see how he handles himself on the field and how he plays.

I wouldn’t be watching otherwise.

I understand that he has stated that he does not really believe that God is concerned about the game and the score ( I agree ), so he doesn’t pray to win games but he prays  to do his best and be used.

Do you understand how radical that is? This world is all about winning and gaining wealth and fame and looking out for No.1 and it preaches a humanistic message: you have the power, you can succeed, you can overcome, it’s inside you, no where else.

Tim Tebow flies in the face of this insidious religion of self.

He is selfless.

The world hates that. It wants him to go away.

I don’t know how long Tebow will remain in the spotlight. I don’t know how long he can live his life under the microscope before he makes a mistake and is crucified for it. But I’m not hoping and praying he will persevere and never mess up.

I know he will mess up.

He’s human, just like me. Just like you.

We make mistakes.

The only difference is you and I don’t have cameras pointed in our direction waiting for us to fail. Tebow does.

When he does make a mistake, will it be a black-eye for Christianity? Will it make some people lose their belief in God?

The answer is a simple no.

If someone loses belief in God because of Tebow, they are only showing where their faith is and it isn’t in God.

Tim Tebow is simply someone who has placed their faith in the God of the Universe and His Son, Jesus. And for the moment he is in the spotlight.

Does God care about the game and winning?

No.

God cares about Tebow, and you, and me, and how we live our lives. And if he can use us to spread His Gospel. And if we’ve accepted the free gift of salvation purchased for us by Christ on the cross.

Right now Tim Tebow is a football player who happens to be a Christian and he is young enough to make his mature and moral behavior an oddity to fans of football – after all, they are used to womanizing, infidelity, gambling, crime, arrogance and general bad behavior as the norm. They were blindsided by good behavior. They can be forgiven for that.

It takes courage in this world, real character, to go against the norm. To display in public a lifestyle that is good and selfless. Tebow is earning much treasure. But not treasure here on earth. Treasure in heaven, where, Christ says, moth and rust and thieves cannot destroy.

To me – that’s reason enough to catch a few games. Even if it means agonizing over the losses.