You're almost afraid to have a hero these days. Because over and over, heroes keep falling off their pedestals. Another one did this week.
Tiger Woods is the most highly paid professional athlete on earth. And he's been one of the most admired and sought after. Then the script of Tiger's terrible Thanksgiving, a script too crazy for any of us to write. In the middle of the night, he gets into a relatively minor accident right in front of his own house. That accident damaged a tree, a Cadillac Escalade - and, ultimately, a reputation. Because the doors blew off Tiger Woods' closet, and hidden relationships were suddenly out in the open.
Tabloids, scandal-profiteers and news outlets are, of course, all over it. But behind the harsh spotlight of stardom is a marriage in crisis, a child caught in the storm and a man groping for how to respond to a moral and career nightmare. Suddenly, all of the amazing ability that has propelled him to sports greatness is eclipsed by his now admitted "transgressions" and "failures."
And across the country, and even the world, a hero with a squeaky-clean image has let a lot of people down. Someone said today, "We have so few role models anymore. It hurts to lose one." Yes, it does. And some days it seems as if everyone has some dark and disillusioning secret in their closet.
We've all had heroes who disappointed us. A dad, a mom, a husband or wife, an admired leader or a go-to friend. Some have been so hurt, so disappointed so many times that they've just grown cynical about anybody being what they seem to be. And yet there's something in us that yearns for a hero - someone who embodies the best, who gives us something to shoot for, who inspires us. And who will not disappoint us.
I have a hero like that. His birth split history in two. His entrance into my life split my personal history in two - B. C. and A. D. Before I had a relationship with Christ, and after. There are millions across the globe who point to the day they embraced Jesus as the day life really began for them. Forgiven of our sin because He died on a cross to pay for it, linked to the purpose we were made for - we were, in the Bible's words, "created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Finally experiencing what it's like to have the lifetime hole in our heart filled - by the One who was made to live there.
Over the 2,000 years since that first Christmas, first Good Friday and first Easter, a lot of Jesus' followers have let people down. Too many of His leaders have been exposed with dark secrets. But never in twenty centuries has Jesus ever proved a disappointment to those who put their trust in Him. He's kept every promise: "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5) ... "The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out" (John 6:37) ... "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have you engraved on the palms of My hands" (Isaiah 49:15-16).
I've accepted Jesus' invitation to pin all my hopes on Him, and my life has never been the same. Like so many others, I have found in Him the harbor where I've always been safe. The "go to" Person who has never let me down. The Hero who never has - and never will - disappoint me. The more you've been betrayed, the more your trust has been violated, the sweeter it is to experience for yourself the pure love of Jesus.
He knows all the secrets in all our closets. The Bible says, "God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ" (Romans 2:16). But even though the darkness of our life openly defies God, He has acted to save us with the greatest act of love in human history. Jesus "gave Himself for our sins to rescue us..." (Galatians 1:4). Christmas was the beginning. The cross was the mission. And you were the reason. That's why you can trust Him. And if you will trust Him as your Savior from your sin, He'll erase every sin, every secret from God's book - and release His power in you to abandon the darkness.
A hero fell this week. Sadly, many more will fall, as so many have before us. But above all the shattered pedestals and broken trusts, Jesus stands pure and strong and safe - as He always has. I'm so glad He's my hope, my only hope. Because He's never going down.