Success and Failure Blog

The recent apology from Tiger Woods had been debated by many. While he has convessed what he has done, he still has quite a few sponsors who are leery at best and ignoring him at worst.

Can he recover his legacy? And, will (or can) he be forgiven?

the answer to both lies in the public. Forgiveness is something people seem rather willing to give if it is sincere. One thing that is important to remember is this: Forgiveness doesn’t mean saying something was right. In fact, in saying it needs forgiven, it’s flat out saying it was wrong.

There are, of course, different levels of wrongdoing. What Tiger Woods did was to sin – committing adultery – on a mass scale. There were no crimes involved. However, it was still an incredible breech of trust. While very few have committed crimes, a much larger percentage of people have at least looked on other adults with lust in their hearts, committing adultery in their hearts, as our Lord Jesus Christ says. Indeed, all of us need forgiven – if not for that, for some other sin.

We can do nothing to earn that forgiveness ourselves, just as Tiger Woods can do nothing to earn our forgiveness. Forgiveness is something that must be given freely. It is not earned or deserved. It is always a free gift. For by grace ar eye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. One must receive what Christ did for them by simple faith – trust that Jesus Christ, God in flesh, lived a perfect life and died on the cross to take the punishment for your sins, as your substitute, and that He rose from the dead the third day. He did all that was needed to get you to Heaven.

A person can work to regain trust, of course, and that will be important. it’s a hard thing to do – which is why the Apostle Paul warns of the need to finish well in the Christian life. It looks as though Tiger Woods wants to do that. But, the Bible doesn’t tell us to trust others. It says to forgive one another, as God for Christ sake hath forgiven us.

Trust must be earned by showing oneself trustworthy in small things first, so they can be trusted in larger things. A young teen I know is mature enough to watch her siblings. She would like to babysit outside the family, for anyone. But, she is just now working to earn her parents’ trust with those younger siblings. Once she does that, she will have the privilege of watching other peoples’ children. As she gets a larger resume and more references, more people will trust her, if she does a good job.

But, if she were to mess up – let’s say she takes her eye off a younger child and he gets hurt – she will be forgiven right away. that is, her parents will still love her. They might decide she’s not ready yet to be trusted with certain responsibilities, but that doesn’t mean they will love her any less.

This is an important concept when it comes to rebuilding his legacy, and Tiger being forgiven. Whenever he plays again, he is going to have to earn that trust. It’s up to the public to decide to put their trust in him again. In the cynical world we live in, it’s easy to wonder what people we can trust, but we can’t just refuse to trust anyone. it will take time for Tiger Woods to rebuild his legacy, but it seems quite possible for him to do so. The public, though cynical at times, does seem ready to let him build that trust up with them again. It’s just like in the Bible, when the Apostle Paul started out, just after his conversion. It took him a while to be trusted by those in Jerusalem, till Barnabas was willing to take a chance. However, that doesn’t mean the early apostles didn’t forgive the former Saul of Tarsus. It just means that they understood only God could be trusted completely.

However, forgiveness – which is also up to the public – is something that isn’t earned or deserved. In fact, true forgiveness means forgiving Tiger Woods before he ever made his apology; just as Jesus called out ont he cross, “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do.” He certainly can be forgiven; because all of us have sinned and need forgivness, which was given to us through the wonderful cross, and the shed blood of Jesus, as the remission for our sins.