Tebowing for Tebow
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Well, as we head into the weekend, I’m really looking forward to the Broncos-Pats game. When New England ended Denver’s amazing six game winning streak back in December, the always graceful Patriots quarterback Tom Brady shook the hand of Broncos miracle man Tim Tebow and said words to the effect of, “Maybe we’ll meet up again.” It was a kind and gentlemanly thing to say and only Brady knows if he meant it, but here we are and here they are and here we go.
How exciting was last week’s Pittsburgh-Denver matchup? So exciting that my eyes were glued to the TV and I didn’t pay enough attention to folding up the home gym machine I got for Christmas. It snapped closed on my fingers. I almost yelled as loudly then as I did twenty minutes later when Tebow threw to Demaryius Thomas for an 80-yard touchdown to win the game in the shortest overtime in NFL history. Broncos on the sidelines who didn’t understand the new overtime rules had to be convinced they’d won. It was a priceless moment.
Win or lose Saturday, Tebow has given us fans one of the most thrilling and off-beat football stories ever this season. Better than any movie that came out last year. Better even than the terrific run at perfection by Green Bay.
One of the most entertaining parts of the whole business for me was the way number 15′s simple and sincere faith in Jesus Christ reduced observing journalists to blithering idiocy. Retired QB great Fran Tarkenton’s rambling op-ed in this week’s Wall Street Journal was not the only venue where someone asked, “Does God Care Who Wins Football Games?” It seemed every time I turned on ESPN or opened the sports pages, someone was asking that question. But why? Tebow never said God cared about that—he expressly said God didn’t. Frankly I think journalists asked that question because they couldn’t bear to ask themselves the more obvious and more dangerous question: Does God care about Tebow’s decency, humility, charity and striving toward excellence? I don’t speak for God but I think deep down we all know the answer to that.
For myself, my peripatetic earlier life caused me to reach maturity without a home team to root for. So while I love the Pats, I’ll be Tebowing for Tebow on Saturday. What a sports hero the guy is. What an inspiration. And really, no matter what happens next, Tebow—and the Broncos—and the NFL—and all of us—have already won big time. And yes, I do believe God cares.
Tim Tebow is only a phenomenon because he lives like he believes. How sad a commentary on our society that we expect our public figures to be unreliable and expolit both their position and our ‘reverence’. I’ve worked with guys like Tebow before. They show up on time. They are cheerful to work with. They are dependable and do whatever it takes to get the job done. They draw us to them with their magnanimity and honesty. And we are better for having known them. Tebow is already a winner because he has something so many of us have lost – perspective.
I suspect that “Tebowing” is a humble man’s way of not getting too caught up in the emotion of the moment and keeping first things first. It’s roughly the equivalent of that slave who stood behind the conquering Ceasar during his victory parade whispering into his ear “Sic transit gloria mundi” (lit. “Thus passes the glory of the world,” loosely translated as “all glory is fleeting.”)
So, Andrew, the real question is … are you ROOTING for Tebow or the Pats to win this weekend? I have quite a few friends who admit that while they like Tebow, they aren’t torn at all and would prefer another march to the Super Bowl.
Tebow is the perfect example what faith can do. I am an atheist, Christianity is a silly faith to me, but all that doesn’t matter. Tebow is showing everybody what our civilization is made of. People like him are the backbone of our society. Hard work, discipline, self sacrifice. Those are not the values I grew up with, or see around me. It worries me. A society of vultures, of people who in the words of the Jefferson Airplane ‘rather have my country die for me’, does not survive.
I hope one day people like him will be the majority again so we can have a future that is stable and hopeful. I feel the same way towards religious zionists and conservative Americans. I don’t always agree with everything they believe in. But they are the only ones doing the hard work, who make continuation possible. I am not saying atheists can’t do it either. But very often faith makes people make the right decisions, instead of taking the easy way out. Abortion comes to mind.
You know, the Presbyterians are having conferences about whether or not sincere atheists can join the congregation? There’s a devout atheist in Austin who wanted to join the church. He had been attending faithfully for several years. He’d been involved in- I don’t know what- since it’s not my church- but he wanted to join the church as a full member. And rather than laughing in his face, they started seeing if he could join. It’s taken very seriously. As I understand it, it’s been taking a few years, with bishops and who knows what else- you know, like the Nicene Council- that sort of thing.
Why not try to join the parade as best as you are able? Your letter is so sad- “other people are fine. other people are doing the work”- if you can see the work, but intellectually honestly cannot assent to the rest of it- why not do what you can among welcoming people?
I am saying this as a person who sat in church for twenty years, believing God was real, and the entire church and bible sick, twisted jokes. i still think crucifixes are kind of creepy. There was room for me. Some people would say ” Oh, I wouldn’t sit next to you- fear of lightning!”- and they were usually people who hadn’t been to church for years. I know people who have grown up in church, and they do tic-tac-toe during the sermon, b/c it bores or enrages them. It’s a very, very, very human enterprise. You’re not too fine, too smart, or too angry to not have a place. Maybe not the first church- but you also don’t buy the first pair of shoes you try on. You want something you can walk forward comfortably in.
The evangelical churches maybe are not a good fit for you- why not try the more mainstream? Presbyterian, Episcopalian, ELCA Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist? The Lutherans and Methodists have been very welcoming to my father, and he’s- I’m not sure what he is- some flavor of devout ” I have contempt for Christians”- books, diatribes, everything. The former head of the atheist society in town attends the Episcopal church with his parents. He’s still atheist.
Well said Daniel…my faith gives me hope that one day your hope for us all will become faith…faith will always be the belief in something or someone without requiring tangible proof. (God)Bless you.
Hey Daniel, What do you think of these ideas?
Atheism does not give any motivation to become hard working, disciplined, or self sacrificing. Atheism does not provide anything to aspire to. All is chance. Everyone makes their own rules. There is no real right and wrong, but only what the majority determines is right and wrong.
Tebow is acting out his Christian faith and from the Christian God is where the ability and desire to be good come from. And where the existance of good and bad come from.
An atheist has no rational basis for calling anything truly good or bad, but only that a majority of people have decided that this action is good or bad. But if a rapist decides raping is good for them, how can you rationally disagree? There is no true/real right or wrong, according to an atheist world view.
So what’re you waiting for? You’re obviously ethically Judeo/Christian, you may as well make the jump and get heaven, too, in the bargain
PS- I used to be an atheist, too. It’s refreshing to see an atheist thinking clearly enough and being honest enough to recognize the virtues and contributions of the Judeo/Christian world view.
“But very often faith makes people make the right decisions, instead of taking the easy way out. Abortion comes to mind.”
That’s an interesting observation, but what I think happens is that faith holds the believer to a higher standard, and that higher standard makes “the easy way out” no longer the easy way.
Some people seem to think that when he kneels Tim Tebow is asking Gd for his team to do well, or praying for a touchdown, or something like that. People have asked “does Gd really root for the Broncos?” I thought this is what non-religious people who don’t get it think. That’s what Bill Maher said years ago on Politically Incorrect about athletes & Oscar winners who thank Gd.
I always thought it was a gesture of thankfulness.
I just googled “baseball players point to sky” and a lot of people are puzzled by that too. I didn’t really expect this question to be asked in the PJMedia realm.
Maybe it’s kind of sad that acknowledgements of Gd have become so unusual that we don’t recognize them when we see them.
I think talent is something God puts in you and skill is something you learn. Mozart had talent; God put all that music in his head. My sister has skill and can play the piano nicely.
Everyone playing for the NFL is a talented football player. They must have something more than just skills learned through repetition or they wouldn’t be willing to do what they do, getting pounded on regularly and risking brain injury. If Tim Tebow said God doesn’t care who wins football games, I can’t argue with that. So I think Tim Tebow is thanking God for his talent.
We all have talents and skills to varying degrees and the world would be a much better place if the silly members of the press would spend a little time thanking God for their talent (or skill) with words.
Agreed completely, Klavan. And I think Linda has it right: Tebow is probably just giving thanks to God.
However Tebow conducts his life off the football field, I respect his public display of faith.
God is not The Force, an impersonal energy. God is personal… in some greater sense than we are. And He is always with us. When a person is with you, it is rude to exclude him or her from your conversations and activities, even if you only glance in that person’s direction occasionally to acknowledge his or her presence. Likewise, it is rude to publicly ignore God just because the people you’re with don’t know or like Him. We should all acknowledge God’s presence and His loving gifts throughout our lives… not just at home or church.
Tebow had the courage to publicly acknowledge God and has inspired others to do the same. For that, he has my thanks.
On another note, “peripatetic”? I had to look that one up. It sounds like a combination of “pathetic” and some debilitating disease.
It’s a game that can paralyze a player. One good hit.
Spouse played high school football. Before every game, they prayed that God protect each player on the field- both teams- and that everyone did their best. That’s it. He says it’s the only prayers he meant, until the birth of his children.
Devoutly not- Christian Dad moved to Texas. His job has a long commute through small towns. He’s quite snide about the gigantic football fields he sees. I point out this is how boys are molded into men, in these towns. The coach has wide, wide, wide discretion and power over the lives of the players, probably enough to keep any self-respecting ACLU lawyer in clover. And people know it- it’s why they sign their kids up for four miserable years in the hot sun, running laps until they throw up, for starters. And why the coach is considered the most important teacher at the school. We still know the name of the centaur who raised Greek heroes- Chiron. The football coach is that town’s Chiron. He steers big, strong young men into adulthood.
We just signed papers for our oldest to sign up for pre-football. There was a clause saying that the coach had the right to enquire into his grades, conduct in other classes, health, everything. He had to sign a pledge saying he would act honorably 24 hours a day. We had to sign a pledge saying we would support him. It’s the strangest document I’ve ever seen from a public school. I think this is the part most writers are missing- this character- molding–has been going on in full view for these young men their entire lives- and it’s cleverly disguised as athletics.
And, yes, I know there are gang-banger athletes. I think they would hav behaved far worse than if they had been in football. And, also, we gossip about coaches with long leashes; which means we know what is normative, acceptable, even exemplary behavior. And we don’t necessarily know that about other teachers. Or call it.
You gotta read “I believe in Tim Tebow” by Rick Reilly at ESPN – http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/7455943/believing-tim-tebow – Reilly can be cynical and snarky, in a word annoying, but Tebow’s actions off the field have made him a fan.
Thanks so much for puting up this link to the Rick Reilly article! That was amazing and I have sent it around to friends.
I agree that Tebow is surely not praying for his team to win. Any serious Christian like him has a pretty strong grasp of what their God is like and what he cares about. It is safe to say that he that he only cares forming the players into better men. Sometimes achieving a win is the means. Sometimes a loss may make more of a difference in an athletes life.
I think Tebow probably prays out of thankfulness. I would also bet that there are prayers for help to do his best.
I think Tebow’s faith is responsible for his unlikely success, not because God is on his side against other teams or against other devout Christians like Troy Polamalu. I think his faith gives him a strength and a confidence in himself and his abilities that lifts him up and makes him better than the sum of his, erm, talents.
I say this as a Christian who believes that God answers prayers but also as a believer who also sees the tremendous practical power of faith to help us live more successfully whether we win or lose.
Tebow is a good public example of the latter. on the other hand, only Tebow and God Himself knows the content of those prayers and whether or not they are being answered and how they are being answered.
A few weeks ago, when Tebow played the Chicago Bears, a group put a mike on Tebow while he was in the arena and playing. That game can be watched and you can listed to Tebow praying and everything he says (such as singing a Christian song off key while throwing a football). Tebow prayed for God’s protection for the team and that they would honor him in what they did and said before that game.
Here’s a youtube clip of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grM2sb7VYSs
God cares about everything, and has already written the script.
Talent and skill…Talent may be innate but if you do not develop it, it will flounder. A true master has both talent and skill from practice. Mozart was playing a keyboard by the time he was two. True, the guy had a LOT of music in his head but if he did not have skill, that is exactly where it would have stayed. Beethoven said it well, “Technique is what gets you from inspiration to inspiration. And he did a large part of his work completely deaf.
Tim Tebow has talent…no doubt about that…and he also has skill the comes from practice and perseverance. That does not happen overnight. I think that what he prays for is for God’s will to be done, for everyone playing the game to be safe, for the officials to see well and make their best calls, for the other team to do well and for his team to do well and lastly, he may even pray that God makes him a better leader. These are hardly selfish things to pray for…these are the same things that you would want to be blessed in, wouldn’t you? So the criticism seems…petty and shallow at best, vicious and mean at worst and yet…that is what people want to dwell on. Gladly, this is not what Tim Tebow sees. He sees the world as a God created place with God’s great and good creation living on the planet. He sees God as a loving Father and I imagine, Tim sincerely wants the best for them. At least he does if he is a Christian and what could be wrong with that?
The Tebow story turns evangelical fans into blithering idiot.
It’s long past time for the media and public to just leave him alone. The guy’s living in a fishbowl with every movement too closely examined. Twenty four years old…..and human….don’t wring him out in this voyeuristic madness.
It’s the making of a psychological firestorm for him.
On the sports level, I am a Patriots fan and I am glad we won the game last night.
On the life level, I am a Christian and I wish Tim Tebow all the best that God has for him. I often wonder if Tim isn’t doing what I have been known to do at my job: “Lord, this is the best have to give today. I know it isn’t good enough, but I’m offering it to you. Take it and use it and whatever happens, Lord, I will love you anyway.”
Tim Tebow is amazingly consistent in his faith and I admire that. I admire the young man Tim Tebow, much more than I admire the amazing quarterback Tom Brady. And both times I’ve watched them play each other, I’ve notice that it’s the same throwing motion from both of them and I’ve found myself praying that Tim learns to do it as well as Tom.
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