I was watching the highlights of the Bronco's game yesterday, and thinking about Tim Tebow. I've had a couple discussions recently about the similarities between America and Rome, and the nature of the mob. The public loves to create and establish heroes, and the latest trend has really been to create heroes and then to destroy them, and see them laid to waste. Guys like Tiger Woods. The media wants to do everything they can to put strong good-looking americans on the front of Wheaties boxes. Then TMZ wants to tell everyone that it's actually not Wheaties, but a cocktail of steroids, heroin, and horse tranquilizer.
Then there's Tim Tebow. As an outspoken evangelical devoid the Michelle Bachmann whack-job theology, or an Osteen-esque prosperity matrix, I like Tim Tebow. As one of the greatest college quarterback careers of all time, I like him even better. I'm non-plussed by his pro career so far, but his tenacity mixed with the right circumstances and style of offense, certainly yields some headline making results.
I follow Skip Bayless on twitter, a Tebow Supporter and ESPN pundit, and he's always quick to point out that Tebow has what it takes to be a pro quarterback, given the right circumstances, personnel and strategy around him. I agree with that. He's also quick to point out the polarizing power of Tebow, and the hordes of anti-Tebow sentiment, often with incredulity.
But I think I get it, I think he was America as a college quarterback, with a squeaky clean image, and people want him to be a bust, they want him to be Ryan Leaf. Ryan Leaf might be worthless under center, but he's infamous. Every draft day they show that clip of him yelling like a 5-year-old at a locker room journalist. Celebrity tabloid world is just human nascar, waiting to erupt.
I'm not really going where you think I might be, but I do hope Tebow illustrates overcoming, and redemption, I hope he stays the course, and stays humble, and is always willing to admit his wrongs and his mistakes, and for all the right reasons too. I think his interviews betray an indomitable will based on his belief system, that anything is possible, but you have to get in there and keep trying, doing, reacting.
I believe that God, as much as he cares about our past and the things we've done, cares way more about the choices in front of us. Something i have learned from the bible is that GOd accounts for our wrongdoing, our mistakes, but his willingness to redeem comes with an opportunity to make a better choice the next time. The mystery of God's sovereignty is that it is all about his glory through our choices.
But, on a much lighter note, tonight, as I was thinking about one of my favorite subjects, romantic relationships, I made a connection to the world's perception of Tebow. This is totally non-linear. But, I am like Tim Tebow vs. the Dolphins when it comes to relationships. No matter how many false starts and fumbles, incompletions, and misperceptions of the defense I have made, my commitment is to getting better, taking it one day at a time, and hopefully having a really spectacular 4th quarter. It holds true one step forward in that, I don't look or act like someone that is the prototype for the position I want to play. I might not have the ideal skillset, or be able to contribute in a flashy way. There are always people willing to dismiss me, but I also have a number of fans that encourage me along the way, and hope that I will succeed. Like Tebow's fans, they are powerless to help me, and I'll only ever have success if I forget the emotional toll that the first 3 quarters have taken, and get back out there ready to play.
In the words of Hank Williams, Jr. "Are you ready for some football?"
