With his fingers in so many pies, it’s amazing to consider that Tim Tebow has time to eat at all. What started as a promising career in the NFL turned into a bid for a spot in the MLB, for which he had to work himself back up from nothing. All the while, however, he has been trying his hand as an author, to great success.
Now he’s released his third book, This Is the Day, with the hope that it might inspire people to live in the moment and follow their dreams. In an interview with Fox and Friends, Tebow revealed that he was inspired to write his new book after witnessing a tragedy on a plane flight.
While soaring miles above ground, a man in the back of the plane had a medical emergency. Tebow has no medical training, but he could not ignore the commotion and so he went back to see if there was anything he could do to help. Even if it was just prayers.
As he told Fox and Friends:
“Right when I get to the family — the man is laying on the ground prostrate, unconscious, blood coming out his mouth — and I get to the wife and right when I get to her she jumps in my arms and her and her friend just fall into my arms and they say ‘We’ve run out of words. You pray.’ “So I walked right into this situation and I start praying. And for the next hour and a half, till we had an emergency landing, I was praying for her husband, Boots, laying on the ground and praying for Debbie and her entire family, for everything they were going through. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it, but one of the things I learned through that situation was that he ended his life living out his dream. “They were on their way to see the Grand Canyon. He was someone who prayed to God in Vietnam that if God would let him come back, he would spend his days honoring Him and living out his dream and what was on his heart … Boots and Debbie, that couple were living out their dream and they were honoring God and making an impact. Even in his death he had an impact on most of the people on that plane.”
During the interview it is clearly seen in Tim’s eyes the impact this man’s final moments had on him. Boots’ faith and desire to cherish every day was the catalyst that got Tebow writing, but he also drew inspiration from his work with the Make a Wish Foundation, as well as from his father’s diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease.
Of the title, This Is the Day, Tebow said:
“Ya know what, life’s not about one day. Life’s not about ‘I’m gonna wait to pursue my dreams,’ ‘I’m gonna wait to get right with God,’ ‘I’m gonna wait to do all these things.’ So many people around us are ‘One-dayers.’ I don’t want to live that way. This is the day. When my alarm goes off, I want to wake up and I want to say ‘Yes, this is the day I’ve been blessed with.’ I’m going to wake up, rejoice, and be glad.”
Tebow’s own journey from the NFL to the MLB has been uphill all the way. Historically, the switch from one professional sport to another rarely works out well in the end. But, as Tebow approaches the ultimate success in this endeavor — a spot on the New York Mets’ starting lineup, which was postponed due to a hand injury — he wishes to emphasize that we should never let fear of failure hold us back.
“Fear controls so many people,” he added, “Fear cannot make decisions for us. We have to let our faith make decisions … We have to let our purpose lead us into the right decisions … “You probably will [fall on your face] at some point, but that’s OK. At least looking back 50 years from now you can say, ‘Ya know what? I lived it. I pursued it. I had a life full of passion, instead of a life full of regret.'”
And today we celebrate...