The Adventures of Tim Tebow
“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!”
“Look! Up in the sky!”
“It’s a bird!”
“It’s a plane!”
“It’s Tim Tebow!”
Ah yes, Tim Tebow is in the news again, this time for praying over a man having a seizure, supposedly resulting in divine deliverance. CHARISMA breathlessly reports:
Former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow’s effective prayer for a fan suffering from a debilitating seizure sparked a social media frenzy Tuesday night.
Tebow was signing autographs after his first baseball game as a Scottsdale Scorpion when a fan suddenly hit the ground and started convulsing uncontrollably.
Tebow sprang into action and laid hands on the man, praying for his healing and comforting him until paramedics arrived.
The violent seizure reportedly stopped moments after Tebow prayed with him. The miraculous healing had many people take to social media expressing their amazement at the power of prayer.
Kari Van Horn tweeted, “Tebow signing autographs. Fan has what looks like seizure. Not moving. Tebow puts hand on him and says a prayer. Man breathes. WOW.”
@danielkellybook took to video and wrote, “My friend had a seizure at Mets game and Tebow prayed for him and stayed with him until paramedics arrived.”
This is not the first time Tebow has prayed for the sick. Earlier this year he prayed for a fellow passenger who went into cardiac arrest on a plane.
Tebow prayed with the dying man and comforted his wife while a physician worked to save his life.
“I watched Tim pray with the entire section of the plane for this man. He made a stand for God in a difficult situation,” one witness said.
Evidently, Tim Tebow’s prayers can heal the sick and raise the dead, but they can’t help him accurately throw an NFL-quality pass or hit a Major League breaking ball. There’s no evidence for Tebow’s prayers doing anything for the latest victim of Tebow’s prayer-power. There was a time when I thought Tebow was just a naïve young man who was easily manipulated by the media — especially Evangelical media outlets who take the minutest God “sighting” and turn it into Moses parting the Red Sea. I now think that Tebow is an aging jock who is having a hard time accepting that his glory days at Florida are behind him. What better way to let everyone know that you are relevant than by running to public scenes such has this one and “praying” for someone. Evangelicals will drool over “God using Tebow” and sports media outlets will use his latest Superman-like escapade as filler for one of their endlessly droning talk shows. For Tebow, he gets another opportunity to remind fawning fans that is he still pursuing his “dream.”
There comes a point, at least for me, where Tebow is the man who always shows up first at house fires. Every few months, it seems Tebow is front and center at a house fire. Perhaps it is time for sports pundits to ponder whether perhaps Tebow is always first on the scene because he’s a publicity whore who craves public attention. Tebow could privately pray, asking God to heal the subject of his utterances. Instead, he continues to behave as he did in his NFL days — Tebowing before the world. In the two stories mentioned above, neither person needed Tebow’s help. Other people were already helping them. Tebow, instead of fading into the background and quietly praying, jumped to the forefront, saying humbly to all, never fear! Tebowman is here!
I am well aware that Tebow does many good things for others, but it seems that reporters and cameras are never far away when he does. I’ll leave Tebow’s BFF Jesus with the last word on this matter:
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. (Matthew 6:1-6)
And people wonder how some miracles came to be. Just look how quickly stories about tebow are exaggerrated and that is with cameras watching. Now imagine two thousand years ago how quickly these miracles would spread around and become greater with every retelling before finally being written down without actually being able to verify whether it truly happened the way it was written. If tebow was catholic he would almost certainly be up for sainthood after he died with what the church considers miracles these days.
I quite agree. I don’t believe the story in any sense in the way in which it is related. Someone suffering a seizure will almost always recover within 60-90 seconds, without intervention. I assume Tebow had already been assured that medical help was on its way when he performed his silly, superstitious, ritual. Putting this down to a miracle is ridiculous, even for American evangelicals; it tells us more about their psychological makeup than it does to demonstrate the existence of any god.
I would seriously be PISSED OFF if someone like Tebow elbowed his way into a medical emergency being suffered by myself or a loved one. I would probably tell him to knock it off/get lost in no uncertain terms. The last thing I would want in a crisis is someone getting in the way with superstitious utterings.