If Honor Ruled

Superman wears Tim Tebow pajamas.

When Tim Tebow touches water, it turns to Gatorade.

The NFL renamed the two-minute warning "Tebow Time."

Tim Tebow can tweet Scripture from a rotary phone.

When you're a public figure it's inevitable. When you've had public exposure for any time at all, you find yourself the brunt of jokes and the point of peoples’ sarcasm. And while some of the jokes are good-natured, other comments are intended to hurt and demean the receiver.

I just happened to run into these remarks about Tim Tebow following the Broncos very lopsided loss to the New England Patriots last weekend, and these were the good-natured jokes. But it really wouldn't make any difference what type of public figure I chose to follow, entertainer, successful entrepreneur, politician, etc., I would find plenty of unsavory remarks about each one.

It seems that it's impossible for us to allow any one person to receive honor for very long. We build them up, but then quickly tear them down. We see this pattern repeated over and over again. A person will receive positive attention, and everyone flocks to them with praise, but inevitably the negative remarks begin to increase and their every flaw becomes a media item.

Why can't we let honor remain unscathed? How would our lives be different if honor ruled?

Honor is valuing a person, and considering them worthy of our respect. What would the world be like if we chose to honor everyone? I began reflecting on this, and soon realized that it would make a profound change in the way we experience life here on earth.

For starters, our lives would be characterized by courtesy to one another. We would offer our seat to the older lady on the bus, or hold open the door for a person with packages in their hand. We would not go into "piranha mode" over that parking spot in the mall, or stampede others in our haste to reach the special sale item. Think how different political campaigns would be. Candidates would be civil to other each other during debates, and campaign ads would focus on issues, not on smearing other candidates.

These would be only the superficial changes. If we all really valued and respected each other, we wouldn't steal, cheat others, or commit violence against them. We wouldn't use deception or manipulation in our interactions with others either. There would be no crime, so we wouldn't need any prison systems or police departments, or regulatory agencies. That would free up a lot of public funds to pay off the national debt!

If honor ruled in schools, employment situations, and our individual homes, can you imagine how stress would be reduced? If we all gave each other encouragement and constructive criticism, how creative might we become as a society? We would probably reach potentials that we cannot even dream of today.

You may be thinking, "This speculation is pointless because it can never happen." Sadly I have to agree with you, because without a profound change it never will happen. You see we can only give what we have received, and far too many of us have never received real honor, so we don't honor ourselves. We don't really value and consider ourselves worthy of respect, so we don't respect others.

We need to have an encounter with our Heavenly Father. He honors us so much, that He considers us valuable enough to die for. And through His son Jesus Christ He did exactly that. He honored all of us because He knows we are valuable, for He created us that way. You see in God's heart, honor always rules.

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. I will be speaking about honor in our relationship with God and others. This is the fourth topic in our current series, "What's the H in HRock Church?"