Grace Effect in the NFL

A few weeks ago, I wrote a review of The Grace Effect by Larry Taunton for the folks at Thomas Nelson Publishers.  You can find that post HERE.  Reading his book was the first time I had ever heard or read anything of Mr. Taunton, until today when a facebook friend posted an article written by for USAToday addressing the treatment Tim Tebow is undergoing at the hands of some football commentators.  I read the article and I think Taunton brilliantly addresses the "anti-Tebow bias". 

You can read the article in its entirety by going HERE.  However the last portion of the column is what resonated with me the greatest:

"Jake Plummer, the latest to take pot shots at the embattled Denver quarterback, might have been speaking for anti-Tebowites everywhere when he said in an interview on a Phoenix radio station that he would like Tebow more if he would "shut up" about his faith in Jesus Christ.

And with that little comment, the cat, as they say, was out of the bag.

Plummer said what the commentators wouldn't say. 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.

So we wait.

We wait for evidence that he really isn't that good. We hope to see him kick a player on the ground, drop an F-bomb on television, or Tweet pictures of his privates. In the meantime, we always have Penn State's Jerry Sandusky to make us feel better about ourselves."

But just maybe Tim Tebow is the NFL's grace effect - the phenomenon simply defined by Mr. Taunton in his book - "that life is demonstrably better where authentic Christianity flourishes". 

I hope you will pray for Tim Tebow.  After reading this article, I am sensing a greater urgency and need to pray for him regularly.  Pray for Tim's faithfulness and continued boldness in his walk with God.  Pray that this "uncomfortableness" those in the NFL are feeling with him will be the very thing God uses to draw them to Himself.

Blessings,
Jennifer