January 15, 2011:

TEBOWING

There is an old story (not true, of course) concerning a man who attended a Notre Dame basketball game with his friend, a Roman Catholic priest. One of the Notre Dame players crossed himself before he attempted a foul shot. The man asked the priest: "Does that help him?" "Yes," said the priest, "if he’s a good foul shooter!"

I thought of that story when I read about the "miracle" victory of the Denver Broncos one week ago. Their freshman quarterback, Tim Tebow, only 11 seconds into overtime, heaved an 80-yard touchdown pass to Demaryius Thomas. When asked his thoughts when the game suddenly ended, Tebow said, "First of all, thank you Lord." If you didn’t know, Tebow is the player who drops to one knee in the attitude of prayer after each touchdown. Admirers and detractors have named this "Tebowing." This was Denver’s fourth overtime victory this season, all engineered by Tebow. His coach, John Fox, had a more mundane explanation for what happened. "I never really doubted (him)," Fox said. "He’s a pretty strong young man." By the way, this win was in contrast to Tebow’s lousy play at the end of Denver’s regular season.

Religious displays by athletes are nothing new, of course. Tebow stands in a long line of athletes who have claimed, to misquote Andrew Carnegie, "God gave me my victory." A more cynical observation was made by my California friend, Elmo Hall. "God has better things to do than watch football games." One wonders also if Tebow’s hyper and very public religiousity is an implied criticism of a lack of faith on the part of his opponents? Does God have favorite teams and players?

Tebow is a fine young man and an excellent football player, but his record in his first year of professional football is a mixed bag. We’ll have to wait to see how his ability develops as time goes on. For myself, I see no connection between "Tebowing" and victory. Robert H. Benson once commented, "Those who have the faith of children have also the troubles of children." As I recall, Jesus urged his followers to have a child-like faith, not a childish faith. What will happen to Tebow’s faith when the Lord (apparently) no longer blesses all his efforts with success? Will he still "Tebow" after disappointment and loss?

Personally, I prefer the chastened faith of the writer of Ecclesiastes: ". . . the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful, but time and chance happen to them all." And the end of the matter is this, "Trust God and keep God’s commandments." That is what real faith is all about.

Love,
Dave