December 8. Tim Tebow. As a quarterback for University of Florida, on this date in 2007, Tim won the Heisman Trophy—the first sophomore to ever earn that honor. He also won two national championships and went on to the NFL.
Then he switched to baseball and signed on with an AA minor-league team. He used his football savings to upgrade the team’s meals and buy equipment for them. The next season he was called to the New York Jets.
He founded the Tim Tebow Foundation and started a movement that has swept the nation. It’s called A Night to Shine, and it’s a local church-supported extravaganza for people with special needs. Churches staff the place with trainers, hairdressers, makeup people, and escorts. They dress up the guests of honor and treat them to an evening prom with all the trimmings.
Tim said, “Being outspoken about my faith isn’t just something that I do; it’s who I am because my faith isn’t just a little piece of my life. It is my life.”
Sometimes, the best way to stand up for what you believe is to kneel.
Before he played baseball, Tim Tebow played football. Before his Florida-Gator years—when he led his college team to win two division championships, before the day he won the Heisman Trophy, before he began his professional-football career with the Denver Broncos and three other NFL teams, Tebow was a high-school sophomore who loved Jesus.
The scent of the crisp autumn air mixed with popcorn and tangible excitement. Fans in green-and-white filled the bleachers. Friday-night high-school-football had begun. With more energy than a boatload of Red Bull, the cheerleaders led the crowd, and the Allen D. Nease High School football team took the field.
The display of testosterone coupled with deep calls of “Let’s do this!” And the crowd yelled even louder. They could feel the win that was headed their way.
Then one player put a little distance between himself and his teammates, and he knelt. On the field, in front of all those people, he knelt. He thanked God for the opportunity and his ability to play.
And after the game—Tim knelt and thanked God again—an action that would become known in the NFL as “tebowing.”
During his sophomore year, Tebow was brutally tackled early in the game. And after he got up, he limped a bit.
“It’s just a bruise, toughen up,” the coach said. “He didn’t want to come out anyway, so I told him, ‘This is the stuff legends are made of. Keep going, keep going.’”
As the game wore on Tim’s limp became more and more obvious. He hobbled through the fourth quarter. And as he ran twenty-nine yards for a touchdown to tie up the score, Tebow’s gait resembled a toddler tottering urgently to seize a toy.
By the end of the game, Tebow could hardly stand. But he managed to kneel after the game and thank God for the opportunity and his ability to play.
After the game when they x-rayed his leg, it showed a fracture—a jagged break.
The God before whom Tim Tebow knelt is the same God who gave Tim enough strength and perseverance to play almost an entire game of football on a broken leg. And God gave Tim the perseverance that led him to play professional baseball after his football career ended.
“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all you do be done in love.” (1 Corinthians 16:33 ESV).
What do you believe in so much that you would stand for, even if others do not? Sometimes, the best way to stand up for what you believe is to kneel.
Borden, Sam. “Backup to Starter to Phenomenon. Repeat.” New York Times. March 30, 2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/sports/football/mania-for-tim-tebow-rooted-in-big-moments.html.
Peter, Josh. “Tim Tebow not happy about ‘Tebowing’ being brought into national anthem protests debate.” USA Today. June 8, 2018. https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2018/06/08/tim-tebow-kneeling-national-anthem/686533002/.
Townsend, Mark. “Tim Tebow fires back at people misrepresenting ‘Tebowing’ photo as national anthem protest.” AOL. June 10, 2018. https://www.aol.com/article/news/2018/06/10/tim-tebow-fires-back-at-people-misrepresenting-tebowing-photo-as-national-anthem-protest/23455303/.
Story read by Nathan Walker