How This Former NFL Champ Lets God Handle His Disappointment
By Movieguide® Contributor
Ever since former NFL quarterback Tim Tebow got some sage advice from his mom, he’s held fast to it and never looked back.
“One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten, and it was from my mom…” Tebow recalled in a conversation with pastor and author Joby Martin. “I’m young, playing sports and I’m very emotional…I would want to get interviewed. I would want to say thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, right? And she’d say, ‘Why don’t you say it when you lose, you know?’”
“Just say it in your head,” he continued with conviction. “Say it in your disappointment after you have a bad play. Give it to the Lord. Like literally in that moment. He can handle it, you can’t. Give it to him.”
Tebow has had his share of disappointments. Around 11 years ago, he was cut from the New York Jets and had stifled stints with the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles.
“It really hurt to be cut from football,” he wrote in his 2016 memoir, Shaken. “But you have to ask: what’s the lesson I’m supposed to learn from this? What does God want me to do from here? That’s how you keep from getting bitter.”
He received lots of negative feedback and criticism from NFL fans, but he never gave importance to what they said.
“You’ll never silence the critics,” he said. “There will always be people in your life who will underestimate your potential, say that you’ll never reach your dream or make that goal, or try to hold you back in some way. What God knows about us is more important than what others think.”
A few years ago, the sex-trafficking victims advocate reflected on how he could have let disappointments take over his life. Because he made God his foundation, he didn’t let his failures overcome him.
He said on his Facebook page:
I know failure is something that defines a lot of people. I could have easily allowed the lows in my life to influence my identity.
I’ve failed a lot of people. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’ve thought the wrong things. I’ve wondered how God could even use me. I’ve won two national championships and a Heisman Trophy, and I’ve been released from, oh, several NFL teams.
But just as I try not to let the trophies, the wins, the awards, the magazine covers, or the accolades I’ve earned and experienced define me, I also try not to let the disappointments in my life tell me who I am. I just know that God is on my side. And with Him, all things are possible.
And while I may get hurt, disappointed, or frustrated by the negative side of these outcomes, my foundation doesn’t have to change.
Even if I wrestle with internal feelings, I can hold on to God’s truth. I know He’s got a plan for me, even when I don’t know what it is or when it seems to look totally different than what I imagined. This is what identity is about.
Facebook family, my hope and prayer is that this encourages you— no matter what’s happened in your life, no matter what you’re burdened by or how you’ve been disappointed— your identity is based in who God says you are, and God can and will use those whose heart is His.
Movieguide® recently reported on Tebow’s mission to help ex-convicts find work:
Nehemiah Manufacturing has been providing jobs for “hard-to-hire candidates” since 2009, working to bring “manufacturing jobs back to the inner city of Cincinnati to stimulate community development and economic growth,” per their website.
Tebow and his wife, Demi-Leigh, have partnered with Nehemiah Manufacturing, praising the company for the work they do.
“Nehemiah Manufacturing is a special place,” Tebow said in a promotional video. “When we had the privilege and opportunity to go for the first time, that’s what really caught our eye and our heart. Meeting the people, hearing their stories but then also seeing the way they were treated. When we saw that, we thought this is something that we want to be a part of.”
