This post has been in my heart for a long time, and it might make some people gasp...I'm not worried about it, and my greater hope is that it makes some people think.
I tend to be that girl who sees the good in life, and in people, and I like being that girl. I don't mind it that eventually, people fail, or hearts break, because love, though heartbreaking, is so worth it. I'm a dichotomy, cautious and adventurous all at once, but you have to know me to know under which circumstances I would be which one.
It is to this girl, this cautious adventurer, that a hypothetical was posed a few days ago, and her answer stunned the one who asked the question. So shocked was I at the questioner's response to my answer that I decided I'd finally speak out about it.
It's no secret that America is covered in news of Tim Tebow. He's taken the nation by storm.
What you may not know is that his parents are missionaries in the Philippines, they run an orphanage. Tim is their fifth child.
So it was that in the atrium of Robertson Hall, I was approached by a fellow 2L who asked if I'd watched the game. I responded "No, but I've been a Broncos fan for awhile." His response was "Pre-Tebow?" "Yes, super pre-Tebow." Somehow we got on the topic of marriage, and then, that turned into marrying Tim Tebow.
Here was the question: "So, if Tim Tebow came into this building with roses and a ring, and took a knee, would you say yes?"
I responded "Knowing what I do about him now? Which is nothing, absolutely not."
Baffled the guy responded "BUT IT'S TIM TEBOW!" "Yes, and I am Courtney, and I don't care who he is, or what he does, marriage does not complete a person, it's for the glory and honor of God. There is a reason why I've never been on a date, or been kissed. Tim Tebow is a wonderful example, but he is a person, and he deserves to be treated like a person, not like an exhibit. If I were to fall in love with him, it would be for him, for the things I knew about him, not for the things the world knows about him. Whoever marries him will be blessed, but if he asked me today, I would tell him no."
The ultimate response? "You are an atypical Christian woman!"
My thought? Sad.
I feel for sweet Tim. My nature is protection, and my protective instincts just go bonkers at that whole conversation. It makes me furious that anyone would treat him with such disrespect as to make him America's most sought after bachelor at the drop of a hat. He deserves better. He deserves a girl who will laugh when he says something funny, the funny that's HIS funny, and gets angry when someone hurts him. He deserves a girl that would be proud to bear his name when she signs the receipt at the grocery store, not because it's on a Broncos jersey, but because it's his.
We're in the same boat, sort of, except, he's a football player, I'm a law student. Nobody really knows my name, everybody knows his.
People joke with me all the time because his parents work in the Philippines and I would love nothing more than to go and love the children there, but really? I couldn't care less whether Tim Tebow passed for 316 yards, or 3.16, I really couldn't, and the girl who falls in love with him, she won't, or shouldn't, either.
I won't lie, I'd like to shake Tim Tebow's hand, I'd like to give him a hug, I'd like to love orphans along side him, but I'd like to do it because he's proven himself someone I'd like to get to know. Why? Because He loves Jesus, because he's not afraid to fight for the least of these, and I came to law school for the orphans. Because he can run, and I ride on a scooter called the Hot Tamale. Because he knows what he stands for. For these reasons, yes, I would love to shake Tim Tebow's hand, and for the same reasons, I would also tell him "NO!" If he asked for mine.
If respecting someone's character (and my own) enough not to be enamored with him because he's a star quarterback who loves Jesus makes me an atypical Christian woman, so be it. I'd like to think that's the kind of girl most Christian boys want anyway.
As for me, I'd rather be content in singleness than trying to figure all of this stuff out on my own. For now, I just love people for who they are, not who the world thinks they are, or wants them to be, and it seems to work out just fine.
"A cord of three strands is not quickly broken"
Ecclesiastes 4:12
For God so loved the world,
Courtney
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