Searching for a Hero

I read this article this morning--and even though I am not a fan of the NFL--I was really struck by the conclusion the author came to regarding all of the disdain for former Florida quarterback, Tim Tebow. For those of you who aren't football fans, don't tune out just yet. This isn't a story about football as much as it is a story about our society and our propensity for raising people up and then tearing them back down.

"Their dislike for Tim Tebow is not, as they would have us believe, about his throwing motion or his completion percentage; it's all about his open professions of faith and his goody-two shoes image. When it comes right down to it, we don't want heroes who are truly good. We want them to fail the occasional drug test or start a bar fight from time to time. It makes us feel better about ourselves. Tebow, however, doesn't make us feel better about ourselves. People like him make us feel a little convicted about the things we say and do. So we find a reason to dislike them. Or, when Tebow says that glory goes to God and the credit for a victory goes to his teammates, coaches, and family, we are suspicious. An increasingly jaded culture, we don't believe that anyone can say such things and really mean them." -Larry Taunton, Director of Fixed Point Foundation and author of The Grace Effect: How the Power of One Life Can Reverse the Corruption of Unbelief.

It is an interesting point to ponder: We want people to look up to and admire, but we still want to see their flaws. We don't want them to be too good. When I posted this article earlier today on facebook, a friend of mine likened it to the way adult virgins are treated/laughed at in our culture. Why is innocence and/or righteousness such an object of ridicule? Why does it make the world so suspicious?

We need not idolize anyone--but what is this need to expose one another? Why must our self worth be based on lessening someone else's? We all lose in that proposition.

Clearly, no one living today is without sin. We all have our struggles--but there are still men and women who are pursuing holiness and righteousness, however counterculture it may be. I hope to be counted as one of them. Don't you? So, let's surround each other "as a great cloud of witnesses," cheering, spurring one another on, encouraging and praying. Heaven knows, there is enough opposition in the world as it is!