Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Tim Tebow
Others’ Negativity Can Fuel Our Rise If We Let It
One of the most inspiring athletes in modern American sports is Tim Tebow, a Heisman trophy winner. Tim Tebow’s NFL career was controversial from the start. Tim was very vocal about his Christianity. He would give God the glory and honor every time he achieves any victory on the field, regardless of how minor. That’s how public he was with his faith.
To him, Christianity means more than just saying, ‘Bless you,’ or ‘God bless,’ or ‘Be blessed.’ It meant evangelizing. And it was really a distinct pleasure to see Tim’s career blossom, culminating in the Denver Broncos reaching the Super Bowl playoffs several years back.
Unfortunately, throughout that experience, Tim had no shortage of haters. People just either loved him, or hated him. And the negativity came from all quarters. Many people were saying that he doesn’t know how to throw a football; others would say that he should just shut up about his faith, and all points in between.
Throughout it all, Tim Tebow managed to stay positive. In fact, he even published a book regarding his life. When his parents were missionaries in the Philippines, his mother was given the choice of aborting him because of pre-birth complications that might end her life. And out of faith, his mother rejected the abortion option. So Tim’s life is a testimony to choosing life and to choosing God’s will.
We Can Always Choose To Be either Victors or Victims
Tim Tebow’s story highlights the fact that our lives and how we look at our lives essentially come down to choices. We can choose to be victims, or we can choose to be victors. It’s too easy to choose to be a victim. It’s too easy to blame other people for the bad things that are happening in your life. It’s too easy to say, ‘Well, I was born this way,’ or ‘That’s just the way things are. Nothing’s going to change.’
When we do that, we hand the ability to control and change situations in the hands of the people or situation we are blaming. We can blame our bad childhood for things that are happening in our lives now, but the more we blame, the more things stay the same. Choosing to take control over the situation even if you didn’t because it enables you to eventually achieve victory over your life.
No One Can Hurt You without Your Permission
Another key fact of life is that you’re not alive if you’re not stepping on anybody else’s toes. People will criticize you. That’s just part of living. We live in a fallen world, and unfortunately, disagreements and dissent are part of the package.
The good news is that all of this negativity will not hurt you if you don’t let it. In other words, no one can hurt you without your permission, to paraphrase Eleanor Roosevelt.
Get Motivated By Others’ Negativity
The reason why many people hated Tim Tebow was the fact that he lived out his faith. He gave God the glory and he let God work through his life. And many people don’t like this.
Many people would like to believe in the fiction that they are the authors of their life, and they are fully in control. They try to block out the reality that somebody else is in control. However, instead of dwelling on the negativity and letting it own him, he instead chose to get motivated by it. To paraphrase Tim Tebow, he said he always used negativity to motivate him to work even harder and become even stronger.
We can do the same thing. The people who hate us are unhappy for their own particular reason. They chose to be that way, and the good news is that we don’t have to join them. Instead, we can let their negativity push us higher and further.
