What Scares Us About Tiger?

I feel like I always take the side of people who fail. Not because failures need my advocacy. Neither is it because I struggle deciding between right and wrong. People who fail give us a false sense of security. We really don't need that kind of security.

When other people fail it brings out the worst in us. I am talking about we religious people. We fail at a alarmingly similar rates as the irreligious or other religious. I am embarrassed. We don't have a flawed Gospel, or a erroneous Savior - but we are flawed and erroneous people. For every Tiger -- there is a Ted Haggard (metaphorically speaking). Why do we insist on using every moral debacle as an opportunity to validate we are right about something? Are we afraid deep down inside that we are not right? Does some Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Barney Madoff story give us a sense of relief about our own doubts and short comings?

The Pharisees from Bible days provide perspective beyond a huff, blow, and head shake. They were underrated you know. They lived a standard of righteousness beyond what we could do. Funny that we spend a lot of time feeling superior to them. Jesus accused the Pharisees of being empty. They felt superior to people like Tiger Woods. If they were living so well why did they feel the need to feel so superior? Jesus said it . . . because they were right on the outside but wrong on the inside.

Do you think Tiger wasted a lot of energy laughing a bad golfers? I doubt it. If Tiger needed affirmation he could look at his trophy case or most recent scorecard. He did not have to be entertained by me hacking my way down the 18th fairway at Oak Hills Golf Club in Columbia. Neither should I be entertained by him hacking at life. I should look at my own scorecard. That is where the analogy breaks down. I would rather look at his.

Our faith in Christ should make us moral people. Other people's failures, however, should never make us feel good about ourselves. Grace should make us patient and slow to enjoy the failures of others. Dave Crowder described it this way:

And we are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.

If I am drowning in grace then I don't have time to enjoy those who are not. Tiger is one step away from drowning in grace himself. Yes, the step is long, but with his credentials (as with all of us), he is out of options.