A day after former Broncos QB Jake Plummer said in a radio interview that he wished the man currently taking the snaps in Denver, Tim Tebow, would curb his references to Jesus Christ and his faith, Tebow responded.
Asked about Plummer's remarks in an interview on ESPN's First Take, Tebow said:
"If you're married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love her' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity?
"And that's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life. So any time I get an opportunity to tell him that I love him or given an opportunity to shout him out on national TV, I'm gonna take that opportunity. And so I look at it as a relationship that I have with him that I want to give him the honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity. And then right after I give him the honor and glory, I always try to give my teammates the honor and glory.
"And that's how it works because Christ comes first in my life, and then my family, and then my teammates. I respect Jake's opinion, and I really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner. But I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, he is due for it."
Plummer had this to say Monday on XTRA Sports 910 in Phoenix:
"Tebow, regardless of whether I wish he'd just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates, I think he's a winner and I respect that about him. I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ, then I think I'll like him a little better. I don't hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff.
"Like you know, I understand dude where you're coming from ... but he is a baller."
Asked by ESPN's Skip Bayless if God makes him a better football player, Tebow would only grant that his faith gives him peace and comfort on the field.
Why do so few people talk openly about their Christian faith like Tim Tebow? How can we do a better job of this?
Comment
I would say we're afraid of what people would say.
Is it fear and apathy? Or is it a lack of faith, gifting, intelligence, personality, equipping by a church numb to discipleship, a broken seminary-clergy complex, believers pining for the premodernist age ... I think it's at least a tiny bit due to Creflo Dollar and Joel Osteen. And me, too.
Timothy, there are indeed different personality types. Not everyone will share in the same way. And yes, I'm sure that there are people turned off by Tebow's comments (like Jake Plummer). But does it not seem that most of us are tongue-tied when it comes to talking about Jesus with non-Christians? It seems that most people say very little at all, even in their own families. Could it be that be often live largely "secular" lives?
I think the answer for me lies partly in Matt 7. I just spoke yesterday on the open trading floor about Romney, Mormonism, American christianity, varied perspectives on Christ and the Bible, Pascal's Wager and contrasted the contemporary manuscript evidence of the Bible and the Roman Empire, respectively. All in the context of providing guidance on faith and spirituality as dads to our daughters, to a PhD in theoretical physics, with several other colleagues in earshot.
But I've been waiting and preparing more decades for opportunities such as these. Sometimes I think Nehemiah was correct in waiting for Artaxerxes to make the overture about the Jerusalem ruins, and not force things himself. Not that Tebow is doing it wrong, but I don't think that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea quiet and discrete ministry was wrong, just different (from, let's say, Peter's public persona).
Don't cast pearls before swine; don't give what is sanctified to dogs. Everyone has a unique level of faith apportioned, and can only take so much. Jesus started at one level with the Samaritan woman at the well, and only gave her what she was ready for.
People need signs, otherwise Jesus would not have provided so many of them. Empathy, character, reputation, professionalism, excellence are all things that are helpful to sharing--I don't think any more by Tebow than by me or anyone else--according to the example that we have from the Gospels. It's not like Creflo Dollar or Joel Osteen are preparing the Manhattan soil for me.
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