was constantly being asked – and often demanded of – to pose for a picture,
promote a ministry or fulfill a laundry list of other requests even after he spent
every possible second signing autographs for those same folks.
As I watched all this play out, I noticed a little girl who hadn’t gotten her
ball signed when the escorts began to pull Tebow away for another game.
He reached out and gestured for her to toss him the ball, obviously willing to
sign one last autograph as he hurried away. Within seconds of the girl’s toss
to him, five or six other balls were pitched at Tebow by middle-aged men
who weren’t even sitting together. (These balls were handed politely back to
their owners – unsigned – by security guards.) Tebow finished his signature
for the little girl and wearily headed to his next obligation.
GRABBING A PIECE OF SOMETHING
ADMIRABLE DOES NOT, IN TURN,
MAKE US ADMIRABLE.
The realizations kept coming at this point: 140+ games! How could anyone
enjoy doing this for 140+ games?
And then I became fully aware: We were all there to see Tim Tebow. We
like who he is. Each of us were inspired by him in some way at least enough
to show up that day. But were we exhibiting the same behaviors we came
to admire?
Through all the trials of that day (he played hard but did not have his best
performance ever) he worked diligently to be Tim Tebow. He exhibited
grace and respect, which sadly was not the case for many of the “fans” in
attendance. One would think that folks who look up to a man of character
would exhibit some of their own.
As I drove home that night, I began to think maybe the people who treated
Tebow in such a demanding manner are simply a product of our culture – a
culture that incessantly asks “What can YOU do for ME?”
It seems people are most concerned with what they are getting out of
an experience rather than the well-being of those involved. Sadly, many
members of the crowd that afternoon were not attentive to how they could
be more like Tim Tebow himself; rather, they were wrapped up in what
Tebow could do for them to make their own life a little more fulfilled. As a
result, it was NO WONDER Tebow looked so tired. I’m sure the man was
exhausted by it all. He is, after all, only human. I think we forget that about
our heroes sometimes.
As Eli and I finished our trip, we talked (a talk I would have with our other
three children a bit later that night). We spoke about the crowd’s general
behavior toward Tebow. We discussed how his “fans” had treated him as if
he were a circus monkey. We talked about the fact that no matter how nice
or giving a person is, everyone has a breaking point.
Overall, we did, indeed, discuss the grace and character surrounding
Tim Tebow. But the life lesson learned was not about how to emulate the
character of our heroes. Rather, we discovered this realization: Grabbing a
piece of something admirable does not, in turn, make us admirable. The
grace we seek lies within our own actions.
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