Super Bowl Predictions

I have three predictions for the Super Bowl on Sunday:

1.  The Saints fans will yell louder than the Colts fans.
2.  Payton Manning will lead the Colts to victory in the 4th quarter.
3.  When people see the Tim Tebow pro-life commercial they will ask "So what's the controversy?"

Reports from people who have actually seen the commercial say it is a very positive, pro-family feel good kind of message couched in a great story.

The story is how Tim's parents, Bob and Pam Tebow, moved to the Philippines in 1985 to begin their work as Baptist missionaries. While pregnant with Tim, Pam became very sick with amoebic dysentery through contaminated drinking water. Her doctor told her that the medications she needed to recover would result in irreversible damage to the child she was carrying. She was advised to have an abortion.  In the doctors opinion, carrying the baby full term was not worth the risk.

Pam made the decision to keep her baby.  It was a courageous choice that was made without hesitation. Our Christian faith teaches us that God is the author of life and that the central issue of our lives is that Christ sacrificed his life so that we could live.    The truth is every single one of us has life because someone made incredible sacrifices in order to bring us that life.   A woman carrying a baby literally gives a part of her self to that baby.  Every family makes sacrifices in order to raise a child.  Sacrifice is central to life.  If sacrificial love is not worth celebrating, nothing is worth celebrating.   

Tim was born healthy and robust in 1987. His mother described him as "skinny, but rather long." Today he is a six-foot-three 235 pound Heisman trophy winner who many say may be the most successful college football player of all time.   There is no doubt that Tim Tebow has been a terrific witness for his faith.  In his acceptance speech for the Heisman, he made this statement:

"I just (want) to first start off by thanking my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave me the ability to play football, gave me a great family and support group and great coaches and everything around me."

My prediction is that when people see the commercial they will wonder why celebrating such an inspiring story has created a controversy in the first place.  The answer is that the polarizing forces that have turned a great story like this into a controversy are driven by a humanist ideology that makes it virtually impossible to see that that God is the source of love and life.   To know God is to know love and love always involves risk and sacrifice, and unselfish sacrificial choices get to the core of what it means to be fully human.