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Tebow is taking a lot of flak (huge, enormous, insane amounts) for his ridiculous antics, showy self, flashy attitude, and all around circus. And by that, I mean, for his decision to pray at every football game, bow on one knee on the sideline of every game, and give all credit to Jesus Christ every single time he gets in front of a TV camera or a microphone.
The world will persecute you, we know this. Tebow has received shocking and hateful scorning from the media, opposing players, and seemingly every play-by-play commentator and sports show host in the country. But what's most shocking is the fact that a lot of his criticism is coming from other Christians.
When in the world would fellow Christians hate on Tebow in such a way ("He's just doing too much", "he needs to drop the Jesus routine", "he needs to do like the rest of the Christians in the league and point up when he scores a touchdown and let that be it", etc. etc. etc.)?
If you've read Francis Chan's book called Crazy Love, I would point you to chapters 8 and 9 (and somewhat chapter 4).
You see, I believe I know why Christians are so irate over Tebows PDF (Public Display of Faith).
When we, as Christians, see another Christian doing something huge for the Kingdom of God (living in Africa, selling their home to give to the poor, adopting a house full of impoverished children, quitting their job in order to serve in a homeless shelter, etc) we label them, and their actions, as "radical". When in truth, 'all' they are doing is exactly what God commands us all to do. But there lies the problem. We aren't all doing those things. So, in order to exist comfortably in our own ______ (fill in the blank: fear, apathy, hiding, ) we must label what they are doing as radical so that we have an excuse for not doing the same things.
If what they are doing is radical, then they themselves must be fringe radical people. Crazy people. Extremists. Weirdos. People.... not like us.
So you see, we as Christians villianize Time Tebow for his passionate love for Christ because we feel guilty for not portraying the same passion, for not being as vocal, for not "doing too much".
Tim Tebow IS radical. Just as we are all called to be.
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As an aside, for all the media attention you hear about no one caring about Tebow, the ratings for Sunday’s game, where Tebow led the Broncos’ to a 29-23 overtime win over the Steelers, was the most watched TV program of any kind since last February’s Super Bowl.
Good points, but I also think "doing something huge for the Kingdom" doesn't have to be what WE value as huge. WE often times get lulled into thinking that WE know what huge is when in reality, whatever plight GOD leads us to, is in HIS way, huge. Take for instance your teaching job at AE. I know we have talked about that and how God used what seemed like nothing huge at all to reach that one person He was after. Good blog....I liked it.
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