Tiger-Tiger-Tiger Woods, Y'all!

Here's the thing. I use to keep a blog. My first blog was Xanga, raise your hand if you remember that site. Then, I got wise and moved over to MySpace. Then came Facebook, and I just completely gave up writing blogs because I figured people were more interested in keeping up with old friends than going to MySpace just to read what I wrote. Back in the day, I was pretty good at writing these things, and I missed it too much, so I'm giving it another shot. We'll see if it's worth keeping alive, or putting to an early death.

One of the main reasons I wanted to start this now is because there is one major issue in the sports world that everyone has something to say about. Of course, it's all about my boy, Tiger Woods. You've gotta ask yourself, why all this fuss over Tiger? Why did everyone try so hard to pry into his life after he had a wreck? Why was everyone so quick to jump to conclusions that it was domestic abuse? Why wouldn't anyone accept the fact that he wanted to deal with it privately? Why was no one satisfied that they weren't getting information? Why were some of the girls he had affairs with so ugly? I'm going to let you in on something that was going through my head, and there are probably very many guys who share my opinion. I didn't want to know a thing.

Yes, it's a provocative story involving the most popular athlete in the world, but I wanted so badly for the media to drop it and leave it alone forever. Why? Because I want to be Tiger Woods. Who doesn't? Maybe not now, but the pre-affair Tiger. The guy was dominant in a very difficult sport. He will probably go down as the greatest ever. He's known all over the world. He's endorsed by just about everything. He's the first ever billion dollar athlete. He lives in a mansion in Florida with his two kids and Swedish model wife. Are you feelin' me now? Over the past decade, he has been painted as the perfect portrait of a hero, and I bought into it. He made a sport that I love fun for everyone to watch. He even put out some great video games. People who don't even care for the game would watch when Tiger was playing. He changed the sport from a game played by overweight cigar-smokers to a game played by physically fit weight-lifters. He's a man. He is a man's man. And I wanted so badly for this story to be left alone so that idea didn't change, but it forever has. In some aspect, I was right. He is a man. He is not perfect. In fact, he's extremely stupid. I continually get fooled into believing that athletes are role models made of some other-worldly matter that isn't affected by mere mortals of Earth. I am continually proven wrong. I think that we all want someone to root for. I believe humans are inherently optimistic and want to see their lives played out as if they are extras in movies, rooting on whatever character they choose as their lead. However the movie always takes a turn for the worst when the lead character doesn't reach their climax the way we wanted them to.

What if we're the lead? What if we are the heroes of our movies? We place our hope in false idols and are constantly disappointed. What if we are supposed to be pulling for ourselves? Maybe God put us on this earth to make a difference in other people's lives. Yes, we have a supporting cast. Yes, we have conflict that we must overcome. Yes, because of Christ who will never fail, we will eventually overcome that conflict, hit the climax, and reach a resolution. God has written, produced, and is directing lives that He wants to use to glorify Himself through lives lived to the fullest. Maybe that's Tiger's problem, he's directing himself in his own feature film. Who is your director?