Denver Broncos starting quarterback Tim Tebow’s star was tarnished a bit after Sunday’s loss to the Patriots but few can deny that the football player had an incredible season. Given Tebow’s rather flamboyant penchant for wearing his faith on his shoulder pads, the question has inevitably been raised: has God been helping Tim Tebow out?
According to CBS Sports, a recent Poll Position telephone survey revealed that 43% of those surveyed believed that Tebow’s success could be attributed at least in part to divine intervention.
This is disturbing information. After all, taking performance enhancement supplements is considered cheating. If Tebow were caught taking steroids he would be censured by the NFL. But doesn’t divine action count as performance enhancement?
When Jesus was touched in the crowd by a woman in need of healing he immediately knew she’d been healed because, he reported, “I know that power has gone out from me.” (Luke 8:46) Power went into the woman and healed her. It would appear then that power has likewise gone into Tebow throughout the season thereby enhancing his throwing arm and overall performance.
Clearly this is yet another loophole that must be closed. In addition to banning performance enhancing drugs the NFL should act to ban performance enchancing prayers.
Of course the difficulty comes in identifying when people are praying. Since that is admittedly difficult to track, another option may be to develop a test for the presence of divine power in the body. According to the latest science divine power residue can remain in the body for weeks meaning that a hair follicle test may be the solution. But until further tests are conducted we won’t know for sure. Tests should also be conducted to discern whether the prayers of others can indeed result in detectable levels of divine power.
Things look challenging now, but science keeps advancing in new tests for cheating. So if you’re relying on some extra power from God to help you win the game be warned: you don’t have a prayer.
