Well, resurrection was a part of this past week. I celebrated Christ’s death and resurrection. Then, I was asked by the media to celebrate another death and resurrection.
Nike decided Tiger Woods was worth too much to set him aside. So they prepared an ad with his deceased father asking his son what he was thinking; what he had learned. As though the institution of Nike could play God in some way and resurrect the son through a form of a confessional booth seen around the world.
It seems to me that Nike’s famous slogan lives on – “Just do it”, as though winners get on with life. But has death been confronted?
A true resurrection requires a true death. If all we do is pick ourselves up without becoming a new person, we are of all people the most to be pitied. We will shrink from challenges, expect to do wrong all over again, and get caught in the whirlpool of despair. But if a new person emerges, a new creation, not formed after your old self but made in the likeness of someone who has conquered your challenges – then you are indeed more than a conqueror.
That’s where the first resurrection is more important to me than re-inflating an image and brand name. I trust Tiger will find this resurrection for his own life.