temptation
1. Temptation. The undisputed force of the decade. It’s not even close. Her perfume filled the air. Her stiletto footprints were everywhere. Too many in sports couldn’t resist her. How many lives did she professionally and/or personally damage?
Temptation seduced many into taking drugs and brought down Clemens, Bonds, A-Rod, Canseco, the facade over the great home run chase and also broke into the home shared by the fastest man and woman in the world and brought down Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery, too.
Temptation also took others from their wives/significant others/baby mamas because they just had to flirt with a skirt. She saved her biggest name for last, whipping Tiger with a month to spare. But she also shook up Kobe, Barkley, Shaq, Jordan, Brady, Pitino, Brodeur, Steve Phillips (twice!), Pokey Chatman, Dwyane Wade and Matt Leinart. And those are just the ones we know about.
I could take a theological spin on this, however, for now, we will just leave it at this. For more on this; read, “when leaders fail” and read, this pdf.
EDIT: here is the theological side of this situation. A good friend of mine wrote this up on a facebook note.
It’d probably be safe to say that during the past month, Tiger Woods life has been exploited. The ugliness of what he felt like could be kept under the table has now been exposed and it seems like the whole world has heard. My heart definitely hurts for this man and I feel like there can be some things drawn from this issue that we could all probably learn from. I pray that Tiger can recover from everything that has happened and get back to the game that he is so passionate about, because I still feel like he is one of the greatest competitors in all of sports.
ESPN did an interview with Herm Edwards after everything spilled out and they asked him for his opinion on what Tiger needed to do next. His message was very clear that Tiger needed to find someone to help him with his LIFE. I’ve attached the link to the interview, so you can check out the whole thing, but I just felt like some of the points he brought up were very powerful. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYBtrrBku8g)
1. Where are your priorities?
I feel like this is something we can all ask ourselves. What is of greatest importance in my life, right here, right now? In Tiger’s situation he was valuing other women over his wife and it was causing him so much unrest. You could definitely tell that by the phone message he left one of the women when he knew his wife was starting to track his secret activity. I feel like this could have been avoided if his priorities weren’t self-centered. I’ve come to realize in my life that things will start to crumble when my priorities are about “me”. Our human nature tell us to get, get, get, and this situation just shows that you can have so much in your life and still feel like you don’t have enough. This is why it’s so important to give priority to something that is constant and will always satisfy.
2. Who is that person who tells you NO?
Edwards definitely stressed accountability and really hit home that it is important to have a great support system that can keep you on track. Do you have a person in your life who will step up and let you know when you are drifting away from your value system? This goes right back to priorities, I think we all need to have someone who has similar priorities to help you walk through life in a way that they care about you so much that when you get off track, they will bring you back…all out of love.
3. “What we do in the dark, comes to the light.”
This comment came straight from the Word in Luke 8:17…”For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought into the open.” No matter how confidential or how tight we try to keep our best secrets locked up, everything done in the darkness will eventually be revealed. This seems pretty scary to think about…I would hate to have my biggest mistakes flashed on National TV for all to see! We might be lucky and get by without people figuring out about everything that we have done, but there is ONE who does.
God the Creator knows us inside and out and Christ reminded us in Matthew 12:36 that we are responsible for it all. “But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.” This seems like a pretty tall order, because we would need to live a perfect life in order to be accountable for no careless words. It is a tall order because it is way out of our reach. We cannot live the perfect life, but there is One is who has!
Jesus Christ, the one who we celebrate this Christmas season, has lived the perfect life and his blood has the power to cover our mistakes we are certainly not proud of. How incredible is that that when those who trust in the Lord will be seen as blameless and perfect in God’s sight on judgment day. This is all because of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus who was born on a quiet night that manger. I pray that Tiger would put his trust in his Creator (who has blessed him with some sick skill) if he hasn’t already, so he could be brought near though the blood!