A Rod and Charles

You know there have been a couple of famous athletes in the news the past month who provide an interesting contrast to one another.  Alex Rodriguez for taking steroids to improve his stats in MLB, and Charles Barkley for engaging in drunk driving, a potentially deadly activity with deadly consequences beyond his own welfare.

Seeing it in writing, it’s so easy to see which offense is more serious, yet the person who has received the most outrage is the person who tried to improve his stats?  Why?  I think it has everything to do with the fact that we thirst as a society for authentic human beings.  We will forgive almost anything other than insincerity, because insincerity abounds.  For better or for worse, even a non sports fan such as my wife looks at Charles and makes an analysis that he is telling the truth, and although he is surrounded by many whose actions are “less offensive” than his, his authentic nature garners him the benefit of the doubt in almost every situation, while others are guilty before proven innocent.

The A rod/Charles example that has played out before our eyes underscores the importance to us as followers of God that our acitons allign with our beliefs, and that we become an authentic people that demonstrates what we believe.   Even if people disagree with us, they can hear our hearts as long as we are authentic.  “The truth” delivered by someone perceived to be a phony just does not fly in our culture.  It’s like an odor that can be smelled from a great distance.

Millions around the country, many of them followers of Christ, have opined on talk radio and television that Alex Rodriguez is really “A Fraud”, rather than A Rod.  When it comes to issue of justice and mercy, we need to make sure we are equally hard on ourselves if the things we say we believe are true do not match our actions.  While it’s more popular to examine A Rods consistency in his story, an equal examination of our own would be more productive.