Whither Tebow?

Not All Who Wander

So the question now is whether the future holds a place for Tim Tebow in the NFL.

Well my goodness they didn’t think he belonged there before Peyton Manning signed with the Broncos … so who cares what they say now?

When he was succeeding, they said he shouldn’t be. He just shouldn’t.

Why not?

He shouldn’t be succeeding because my … gosh! … just look at him! He shouldn’t be succeeding because he shouldn’t.

Perhaps you begin to see the problem with that reasoning.

Then they were bugged because he was proving them wrong.

Now what?

Deciding whether — or where — Tebow should play when you aren’t the one deciding is like asking if Google+ will topple Facebook. As if you could know.

Tebow will be fine.

And anyway, we don’t know.

Apropos of recent news — where will Peyton Manning sign? — I remember January, when the Colts fired their head coach, Jim Caldwell. The day before he was gone, as one report noted:

Things were so clouded Monday that Caldwell even met with former Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo about possibly becoming the Colts’ new defensive coordinator, and as late as Tuesday morning, the conventional wisdom was that Caldwell would stay.

Then things changed almost as suddenly as the Colts’ fortunes in 2011.

A day before he was fired, the coach met with someone to interview him for a job on his staff! In less than 24 hours, he was gone.

We just don’t know.

He never got real public support from either head coach John Fox or John Elway. These are the areas where support is routinely expressed … but not here.

They had a chance to build a team around the guy, and now another team will have that chance. The conventional wisdom says they will trade him.

Of course, conventional wisdom has been wrong before, and maybe Manning will train Tebow, instead of punch his ticket out.

If they do trade him, the new team will make it work.

Tebow’s a sinner saved by grace — yes — and knows his faith and football both come from God.

But he’s also an elite. He’s an awesome football player.

We may not like elitism … but we love excellence.

Elites.

Tim Tebow is one of them. He’s an elite. He’s in a place every day and a tougher place every week, and one that none of us, critics included, will ever see. He’s better than 1 percent of 1 percent of the world at this.

The oldest ugliest brokenest Major League Baseball journeyman utility infielder hitting .230 … the guy who might see a homerun once every 30 games … unless he’s watching his teammates when they’re up … who will never see the inside of Cooperstown unless he buys a ticket or they ask him to introduce someone who got voted in … is a better baseball player than any of us.

Let that sink in here.

Tebow’s good at football.

And he’s pretty good, period.

The more we know about Tim Tebow, the more we like him.

But even that — whether we like him or not — is of no ultimate concern.

Tebow’s New Testament namesake knew a little about pressure and derision.

And Tebow will get better and better.

This I am almost sure of.

And it will be OK.

This I do know.

He’ll be fine.

I recall C.S. Lewis writing somewhere, “If the Lord lets me keep writing, then blessed be He.  And if He does not — then blessed be He.” This was in the early 1960s, a few years before his death. The Lord, it appears, did not let him keep writing.

Blessed be He.

Note: This post originally appeared as a guest column for Inside the Pew, and is partly excerpted from my book, Tebow: Throwing Stones.

Recent

Coyotes and Christians

I am not saying Christians are like coyotes. [For that, some could cut caustically to coyotes are like Christians — tricksters, roaming in the dark, feeding on the dead … ] Simply noticed — somewhat in passing, as it’s said, having attained, apparently … achieved? … some kind of state where nearly anything I hear,

Read More »

And Did Dostoevsky Say ‘Beauty Will Save’

Short answer: he did not. Neither did Prince Myshkin, that we know of. Likely both believed it. Beauty — in the person of Christ — will do so. And clearly D wrote of M in The Idiot to explore art and beauty and ugliness and salvation. But did he say it, and did he believe that

Read More »

What I Recalled Watching Netflix

[Television is educational.]   One Saying the same stuff over and over looks like you have different things to say. Two If you’re ever in a below-average film or streaming series, and you beat the tar out of a guy, in a house, and you gaze down in both some shock as also a certain

Read More »

Seeking the King

A line everywhere misattributed to Chesterton reads thus: The young man who rings the bell at the brothel is unconsciously looking for God. This line is not from the great [several senses of the word] man who recently celebrated his 150th birthday, but the mid-century most unmodern novelist Bruce Marshall. The words — which do

Read More »

Random

Out of You and Me

An important decision Zig Ziglar … Wendell Berry … or James Lee Burke? The book one brings to morning coffee out is not unlike the t-shirt options one has later that evening SpongeBob … Arsenal F.C. … or Feel the Bern? Managing our reputations, as the LinkedInFluencers say. Wouldn’t wanna cross those guys. It’s usually

Read More »

Not For Teacher

There’s an unfortunate instructor-y thing where the guy on stage [I’ve found it’s usually a male doing this] asks a question he already knows the answer to, one of the people in the audience … err, classroom … is the target, the answer given is wrong, and the stagehand just goes and gives the answer

Read More »

The Smart Young Student

Then a student came up to Him and said, “Teacher, what must I do to get an A?” And the Teacher said, “Now you want to know? Now you care — and you think I can help? Look, to get an ‘A’ just do the things that get an A: think critically, run the spell-check, yes, you need

Read More »

Related

Forget What?

Today is the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Poking around, I found this short item, from the Fictional Newswire New York (FN) — Eleven years after the World Trade Center attacks here in September 2001, most haven’t forgotten … they just don’t know why they were supposed to remember. “Uh, I’m pretty

Read More »

Why Not Two Cupcakes?

Something we know well and another I know little. Remember … re-member … before we begin Dallas Willard on knowing — namely … named-ly … not intellectual apprehension but interactive relationship. Each and both come from the same aim: good and right and lovely when well and harmful on all counts when not, as is

Read More »

Never Ending Story

For the record, such as this is, Breaking Bad won’t end. As the series has continued we’ve become accustomed to Walt doing what he wants. And he certainly doesn’t think a thing’s over until he says it is. The previous episode, ostensibly the second-to-last-ever one, ended with him heading out to take care of business,

Read More »

For M

The great story is the search by the lover for the beloved. I love M. I am in love with M. [angry as well; in love and in pain, simul.] To love as Christ loves. (ask, seek, knock). God pursues. Christ stands. Spirit groans. I am he. I seek her even if she will not

Read More »