Today’s Scripture Reading (August 28,
2013): 1 Chronicles 15
Mike Tyson
says he is close to death. The problem has nothing to do with his boxing
career. In 1987 at the age of 20, Tyson became the youngest boxer to hold the WBC,
WBA and IBF heavyweight titles. At that point his future seemed to be
incredibly bright. But Tyson himself admits that he is a Bad Boy. And that Bad
Boy character meant frequent confrontations with the law and time spent in
jail. What should have been an incredible boxing career ended up being a career
that was marred - and wasted.
The reason
for Tyson’s grim prognosis is related not to the Mike Tyson the Boxer, but
rather Mike Tyson the Bad Boy. He has been guilty of abusing alcohol and drugs
for most of his life. And now it is those same drugs that threatens Tyson’s
life. He needs to get off of them. As of now, Tyson has been sober for only a few
days. Oh, he admits that he has said that he was sober before and every word
had been a lie. But now he is really sober, sober for maybe a little more than
a week. And his intention is to stay that way because he still has a life to
live and a new career as a boxing promoter to succeed at. And that will only
happen if the former boxer can stay clean and sober.
If you
question Tyson’s ability to keep his promise, you are probably in good company.
To be brutally honest, one of the things that seems to keep us entertained is
watching people fail at keeping their promises. Entertainment shows depend on
the inability of public figures to learn their lessons and change their lives.
And we tune in to watch every little indiscretion. No headline seems to draw
our attention like the news of another celebrity that has fallen off the wagon.
But if we are honest, we also realize that this inability is just an extension
of our own – we too are guilty of being unable to stick to some of our
decisions aimed toward a life change (and health clubs are making millions off
of that one trait.)
David had
learned his lesson. At one of the low points of his time as king, he had
forgotten that only the Levites were allowed to carry the Ark. And that mistake
had cost him the life of one of his valued warriors. But now things would be
different. Now he would treat the God he served with the respect that that God
demanded. And that was a lesson that the returning Israelites needed to
understand as well. They had lost their nation because they refused to respect
their God. David’s lesson had been repeatedly forgotten by his descendants
through the generations. But it could not be forgotten any more. It was a
lesson that the people needed to learn if they were going to survive. To live
they would need to learn and never go back.
Personally,
I am cheering for Iron Mike. But it might be that iron characteristic that will
be his downfall. Because iron is hard to mold unless it is superheated. And
even though Tyson believes himself close to death, the heat may not be high
enough yet to allow Tyson to make a permanent change. But I hope that it is –
because the world needs all of the characters that it can find – and Mike Tyson
is definitely one of those.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1
Chronicles 16
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