Yes, this is another Blog that is inspired by Tim Tebow.  I don’t think I will do another blog on this remarkable young man for awhile.  So bear with me for just this one more time.  I know there will be a lot more said about this young man, so it will be tempting on my part to reflect again with you on the influence he is having on our culture.  Right now a poll from ESPN says he is the most popular athletic in America.  So in my opinion we need to make the most of this season.

As all you sports fans know, the Broncos lost last Sunday to the Patriots and Tom Brady.  Tebow completed just 9 of 26 passes for 136 yards, with no touchdowns, and his attempts to run – his greatest strength – were thwarted as he gained just 13 yards.  He was sacked five times and lost a fumble as the Broncos were over matched from the start by the Patriots.  They lost 45-10.  So last Sunday could have been a very down time for Tebow.  But that was not the case.  

Listen to what Tim Tebow had to say after the game. “It still wasn’t a bad day.  It still was a good day, because I got to spend some time before the game with Zack McLeod ( a 20 year-old Cambridge native who suffered a traumatic brain injury playing football) and make him smile, and overall when you get to do that, it’s still a positive day. Sometimes that’s hard to see, but it depends what lens you’re looking through.  I choose to look through those lenses, and I got to make a kid’s day, that’s more important than winning the game.  So, I am proud of that.”  Wow!  Did you hear what that young man said.  There is something more important than football.  Football for Tim Tebow is “a platform” for serving God.  That is the secret to his public life.

For me it raises the question about the kind of “lens” I see through.  It like the old saying, “Either the cup is half full or it is half empty.”  It depends on how you view what is right in front of you.  We each have a lens that we look through.  The apostle Paul writing from prison in Philippi was a very joyful person.  The whole letter is one of joy. He saw through lenses of “contentment.”  He says this about himself, towards the end of his letter. “I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances.  I”m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little.  I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.  Whatever I have, whatever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Phil 4:12-13  – The Message)

I would like to challenge us men, with those words from Paul when he says, “I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances.”  My take away from the witness of Tim Tebow is this.  Being content in the present moment, that is, in my present circumstances, has a lot to do with being “other-centered.”  That is why losing a big game can be put in perspective.  Can you image a 24 year young man, with all the pressure on him before the big game, giving his undivided attention to someone who is less fortunate.  In my book, that is maturity far beyond Tim Tebow’s years.  So I ask each of you men, what kind of lens are you looking through today.  When you look into your circumstances are you first of all, centered in Jesus and then on others.  Think about this  – “All you have is the present moment.”  How do you see it – with want kind of lens.  Is it about you or about God and others.  That is the choice we have to make.