Tiger

Anybody tired of hearing about Tiger Woods yet? I heard one reporter say that Tiger has now joined a fraternity of famous people who while on “top”, have still “fallen far”. I have heard more jokes, read more articles, and seen more sports center reviews on this one man that I could have ever cared too. Here is my issue: all awhile, we know exactly what is going to happen. It happened to Alex Rodriguez, it happened to Kobe Bryant, it will happen to Tiger. At the moment that he returns to an athletic achievement…his image will be restored and he’ll be a national hero once again. Unbelievable…

I have been dealing with how to draw spiritual implications and applications from this. I don’t know Tiger’s faith, but I do know that he lived a life of secret, hidden, patterned sin. Let’s assume for a second that Tiger is a follower of Jesus Christ. He would not be that different than many of us. While we may not be having affairs with multiple women, many of us do entertain secret, hidden, patterned sin. We think we are fooling everybody around us…and worst of all, think we are fooling God.

Rather than give you an opinion, I’d like to point you to a text. 1 Timothy 5:20 says:
“As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the
presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear”.
Lets go from end to start. First off…we are too live in FEAR. Fear of the Lord is a common theme that runs throughout scripture, and I think finds its climatic definition in passages like this. Our sin will find us out. A DEEP love relationship with God and a habitual life of sin cannot co-exist. One should and will cancel out the other. Our fear should also lie in that our sin will come to light. Therefore, when we see people fall…it should turn us inward and call us back to a fearful response of motivated righteousness. Our second response is active rebuke. This is tricky, and one that I find a lot of comfort in being a part of a community called the Church. The Church is an active mechanism of not just teaching us of righteousness, but holding us to it. One of the Churches key functions is the accountability of believers. In cases of secret sin, accountability looks like bold, public rebuke by Church leaders of the individual that the rest of the body can 1) respond in fear leading to righteousness 2) come around in hard love and support of the individual. Both are necessary…both are needed. Both are being the Church.

I wonder if Tiger is getting either. If the only spiritual take away is that we fear our own secret sin ….than I think some worthy good has come from it. Definitely will change the way I watch golf…

~Deep thoughts by a shallow guy~
mn