By Scott Ludwig, MagicLudwig@gmail.com
God is the original Promise Maker. He is also the very first Promise Keeper. His promise is one of comfort, peace, and strength; of salvation, eternal life, and the everlasting Holy Spirit.
It’s a hard act to follow.
But I know of one young man who is giving it his very best shot.
***
I first became aware of Tim Tebow when he was the quarterback for Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Cindy and I have relatives living there, and they spoke often of the home-schooled left-hander, who threw for 390 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for another two scores and led his team to a 44 – 37 win over Seffner Armwood to win the 4A Florida high school championship in 2005.
In December of 2005, Tebow committed to playing football for the University of Florida, the alma mater of my wife and I. It goes without saying that we instantly became two of his biggest fans – although I’ll say it anyway.
Case in point: We were screaming in the Swamp when Tebow made his legendary jump pass against LSU in 2006 in his freshman season. I distinctly remember telling Cindy in that moment ‘the legend is born.’ Two months later, we were cheering in Atlanta as the Gators won the SEC Championship by defeating Arkansas. We were on the edge of our seats watching at home as Florida won the National Championship game against Ohio State out in Arizona in the wee hours of a January morning in 2007.
And that was just in Tebow’s freshman season. He won the Heisman the following year, and another National Championship the year after that. It was one of the highlights of my life to be in the stands in Miami for the latter to see the Gators’ 24 – 14 win over Oklahoma, a team with a Heisman-winning quarterback of its own.
In Tebow’s senior year, Cindy and I returned to Gainesville to see him play his final game in the Swamp, a 37 – 10 win over rival Florida State. Once the game was over, we remained glued to our seats watching the young man who had just thrown for three scores and ran for another two circling the stands, giving high fives to every fan in the front row.
One week later, we were in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome when the Gators lost the SEC Championship game to Alabama, thus ending Tebow’s dream of an undefeated season. Afterwards, a visibly shaken Tebow appeared on the Jumbotron, tears streaming down his face. What happened next was ugly, as Tebow was ridiculed by some mean-spirited rival fans for his emotional display.
Tim Tebow died a thousand deaths that night, as did Cindy and I.
We’ve followed his career every step of the way ever since – both on and off the field.
***
As fate would have it, Tim Tebow was the keynote speaker on the first night of Cindy’s annual company conference recently at the San Diego Convention Center. When he took to the stage, he looked every bit as fit and healthy he did when he wore #15 for the orange and blue.
But his message that evening wasn’t about football. Not entirely, anyway.
Rather, he spoke primarily about the promise of hope, faith, rescue, and spreading the message of the gospel: the good word of Jesus.
Tebow recalled an incident at the beach when he was seven years old. He and his older brother were playing in the ocean when an undertow pulled him out to sea. His ten-year-old sibling tried saving him, only to be caught by an undertow as well. Fortunately, an alert life guard came to their rescue. Tebow described how that one brief moment – the rescue of not only his life but his soul as well, because the outcome could have been so much worse – changed his life.
Tebow’s eloquence, conviction, and dedication to his intended purpose kept the 9,000 people in attendance captivated throughout the entirety of his 30-minute presentation.
He mentioned that one of his goals in life is to continue spreading the gospel to the best of his ability, so that one day he won’t be remembered so much for playing football, but rather for having kept his promise of passing on the message of the original Promise Keeper.
This made me remember his post-game speech during his junior year after a regular season loss to Ole Miss, forever to be known in Gator lore as ‘The Promise.’ Tebow promised that he and his teammates would play harder than ever the rest of the season to make up for their narrow one-point loss.
Promise made.
The Gators went on to win each their next 10 games by an average margin of almost 34 points, culminating in the aforementioned win over Oklahoma for the National Championship. The loss to Ole Miss would be their only loss of the season.
Promise kept.
***
As I left the convention center after listening to Tebow’s eloquent and powerful presentation, I realized that as good as a college football player I knew him to be, he was an even better human being.
And I promised myself that I would do my best to pass along his inspiring message of hope, faith, and rescue.
On that note: promise kept.
