The Easter Tebow

I heard that Tim Tebow was preaching at a church in Texas this Easter Sunday. I was not surprised. And I was not surprised by many of the comments. They were mostly positive. Some of the negative ones had to do with the people who were just coming to church to see a celebrity.

I have to admit that I wish I could be there and hear his message. I recently read his book, and I find him to be a very inspiring young man. There are a lot of Christian athletes in the NFL, the NBA, and in Major League Baseball. But there is something special about Tim. He just seems so GOOD.

I am not casting stones at other famous people who believe in Jesus, but they seem like most Christians: decent enough people, but only in an above average kind of way. I think of myself this way, too. I am a good man, but I am good in the way of most decent people. Tim Tebow seems to be transcendentally good. He's not perfect, but he is so far above most decent people, that it's noteworthy.

If you are a gifted millionaire athlete and you "give back to the community," that is the decent thing to do. But Tim Tebow has been doing good, ministering to the poor in the Philippines and visiting sick kids in hospitals since he was a teenager. He seems to have no skeletons in his closet.

Today, he is loved and hated, lauded and criticized in public, and scrutinized as no other athlete, or celebrity, that I can remember. And he never complains. He does his job. He is a great sport about all of it.

He is not only gifted in ways that few of us are. He also cultivates that Fruit of the Spirit that few of us do. If you are unfamiliar with it, here it is from the 5th chapter of the Book of Galatians:

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³  gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

All Christians will claim to have love, and that can be manifested in many ways. But as you go down the line, it starts to get specific, and some of us end up settling for 4 out of 9 or some other fraction. And some of us say, "Patience just isn't my gift."

But patience is not a gift. It's a FRUIT of the Spirit. It is evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. Likewise, faithfulness, which we may also call reliability, is not a gift of the Spirit. It is evidence of your relationship with Jesus. And He said,

^{Mathew 7:16} You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹  Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

What follows is sobering...

²¹  “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²²  On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ²³  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

 So, you can have gifts, but bad fruit. It would be a good idea to examine the fruit in your own life. I have been doing this, and it is leading to some active pruning. I complain too much to have joy. I am too critical to have kindness. I get angry too easily to have peace. I could go on.

The good news is that the Fruit of the Spirit is available if I will repent and change my ways. I have to stop stifling the work of the Holy Spirit, and start letting Him teach me how to respond to life. And if I do that, I will be different. I will be transcendent. And my prayers will carry a lot more weight than they do now.

Have a Happy Easter. Prepare to begin your walk with the Lord, again.