Life as a Christian Woman

Bear with me, but it is time for me to do a sports story.

But while it is a story about an athlete, it is much more. It is a story about how a seemingly minor act can impact hundreds of thousands of people.

Tim Tebow is the quarterback for the national champion Florida Gators. Now, before you think that I am a Gator fan, let me stop you. I am not. I am actually a Tennessee fan, and Tennessee and Florida have a heated rivalry, very heated. But Tebow is the kind of athlete who transcends rivalries, and any real fan should be able to appreciate him, both as an athlete and person.

Tim Tebow is a great young man. He is a team leader, excellent quarterback, and won the Heisman Trophy, given to the nation’s top football player, as a sophomore (the first time a sophomore had ever won the award).

Beyond that, he is a Christian. Not just a “I want to thank God for this victory” Christian, but a Christian who gives up his summer and spring breaks to go into the mission field. He was born in the Philippines to missionary parents. He was homeschooled, and at age 15 spoke to more than 10,000 high schoolers in the Philippines.

Tebow always writes a Bible verse in his eye black (the smudge of black that athletes put under their eyes to reduce glare). All season he wrote Phil 4:13 (Philippians 4:13)… “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.”

But on the night of the national championship game against Oklahoma, he changed the message to John 3:16… “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

And here is the interesting thing… for a period of time that night, during the game, John 3:16 was the most searched item on Google. (Click here to see the spike for searches on John 3:16 during the title game)

That’s right. While watching a football game, the game for the national title, fans who saw John 3:16 in Tebow’s eye black stopped and googled the verse to see what it was.

Talk about a testimony. Literally hundreds of thousands of people who Tim Tebow will never meet got a taste of God’s glory that night, simply through a camera shot of a college kid’s face through a football helmet.

Tebow views football as a stage he has been given to profess his faith. He doesn’t shove his faith down anyone’s throat, but he stands for what he believes in.

Now, not everyone loves Tim Tebow. In fact, there is a wonderful article about him in USA Today by Christine Brennan, and the majority of the comments that follow the story are negative. But they are negative in, frankly, a sad way. They pounce on him, they say they will be glad when he is done and out of football. They say they are sick of him. And they say that they think he gets too much glory.

On that last point, I have no doubt that Tebow will agree. I’m sure he would much rather the glory go to God.

Click here to read the USAToday article on Tim Tebow by Christine Brennan.