God Wants Me To Be a Star

What if God's plan for Tim Tebow is to be Kyle Orton's backup?

Anyone ever think of that?

No. Of course not. Nobody ever thought of that, least of all Tim Tebow. He has gone through life believing -- knowing -- that God's plan for him involves the spectacular, not the mundane. It's kind of like reincarnation: People who believe in that sort of thing tend to think they were someone famous in a previous life. I've never heard anyone say that, in another life, they shoveled out stables for a small farm in Kansas.

People are grandiose in their beliefs, religious or not, and Tim Tebow is no different. And to this point he has been correct. His life has been grandiose. He was the best high school player in America. The best college player in America, and one of the most accomplished players -- one Heisman, two national titles -- in history. A first-round draft pick of the Denver Broncos in 2010. Christian role model. A hero on and off the field, in this country and others. His life? Grandiose, every step of the way.

Now others are saying Tebow will never be a good NFL quarterback, and he doesn't believe it. Which is fine. But check out the reason why he doesn't believe it.

"Others who say I won't make it are wrong," Tebow told the Denver Post on Thursday. "They don't know what I'm capable of and what's inside me. My family and my friends have been bothered by what's gone on, and I tell them to pay no attention to it. I'm relying as always on my faith."

He'll make it in this league -- for the Bible tells him so.
~ from Unbelievable -- Tebow Believes Faith Equates to Starting in NFL by Gregg Doyel ~

I've written before about the spectacle that some athletes make after a big team or individual victory. They stand before the camera to tell all the world, "God is what made this win possible."

Why don't we see this same kind of evangelizing when an athlete or team loses? Why aren't athletes mugging for the camera telling the world that their God "made this loss possible"? Why is it that success is God's doing, but failure is ours?

Life is about ups and downs. Mistakes tend to teach us more valuable lessons than successes. We have the opportunity to grow and mature from our many missteps. If a person's god supposedly is concerned about each believer's well-being, it would follow that he/she would throw in quite a few failures along the way.

But the Tim Tebows of the world only view their deity as one who is there to fulfill their desires and comfort them when the fallible human messes up God's grand intentions for them. Tebow believes one day he will be a star professional quarterback because his God wants only the best for his special anointed one -- Tim Tebow!

Of course, we just don't see this phenomena in the world of sports either. In politics, Michelle Bachmann has said that God wants her to run for the Republican nomination for President. I am sure she assumes that her God wants her to win that race and to become US President.

But what if God indeed wants her to run for the nomination and lose? It could be God's way of teaching her a valuable lesson. Does anyone think that, as part of her concession speech, Bachmann would stand before the podium to say, "I just want to thank God Almighty for making this landslide defeat possible. Glory be to God."?