I LOVED the Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad starring Tim Tebow and his Mom.
If I hadn’t heard all of the uproar and controversy before the game (like this, this and even this), I would have thought it was OK but the pre-game anger and objections made it absolutely WONDERFUL!
Where was the controversy? Where was the heavily right-leaning advocacy?
Nowhere in site, that’s where!
Instead, all we saw was a loving Mom telling us that she cares for her son.
Nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.
I loved it. I laughed and laughed and laughed.
I wasn’t laughing because I thought that somehow the right had pulled one over on the left, I wasn’t laughing maliciously at all. If the tables had been turned, the conservatives would have been just as quick to judge and condemn.
I was laughing at human nature, that innate capacity we have of making judgments based on the most tenuous evidence.
We’ve all done it and we all do it.
Whether it’s a person who makes a bad first impression on us, someone we work with that we’ve never taken the time to get to know yet have formed an opinion about or that televangelist whose forty-plus years of ministry we dismiss because of a five minute snippet of them we once saw, we all make rash, uninformed, incorrect assumptions and judgments about people and situations.
The Focus on the Family Super Bowl Ad has reminded me to stop and take a breath before I pass judgement and make sure I make decisions based on actual facts, not my own imagination.
How about you? Have you ever got upset or indignant about something only to find you didn’t have your facts straight?
Have I ever got upset without finding out all the facts first? Let me see… have I ever NOT? 🙂
Well put, Peter. I've learned in ministry (the hard way) there is always two sides to every story.
Pastor Trey getting upset before finding out all of the facts?
I don't believe that for one moment 🙂
I thought that commercial was adorable. When I saw it, I thought to myself, surely that's not the one. They must be running the controversial one later…
Have I ever got upset or indignant about something only to find I didn't have my facts straight? No comment.
Adorable is an excellent word to describe it!
I'll admit I was dreading those commercials after all of the pre-game hype. Defending my faith always sounds so….defensive. We are all pretty quick to jump to conclusions and form an opinion. But the love of a mother? Pretty tame and heartwarming. I was being pretty selfish in my initial assumptions. Shame on me. The ad was great.
Yeah, I was wondering a little what they were going to do… and hoping they weren't going to start a bigger storm than they already had.
Which is probably why I loved it so much. All my fears were abated!
Yeah, there have been many times where I responded to someone or something way too quick. Reminds me of what I heard a pastor say on the radio on Friday. He was talking about Nehemiah and how when he went to rebuild the wall. He arrived in Jerusalem and waited three days before doing anything. Those three days were spent colleting his thoughts, gathering facts, and planning his approach. Exercised patience always results with wise actions.
Thanks for the post Peter, and I nearly missed the entire commercial. It happened so soon. It was only like the second commercial break. Thanks for posting it here as well, this is the first time I watched it all the way through.
I didn't get to see any of the game or commercials on TV but I've been trawling my way through the commercials on Hulu!
Good reminder Peter. Thankfully I’m 100% past this problem (yeah right).
I thought the commercial was great too.
I thought that commercial was adorable. When I saw it, I thought to myself, surely that's not the one. They must be running the controversial one later…
Have I ever got upset or indignant about something only to find I didn't have my facts straight? No comment.
Good post about this good reminder for each of us …
Good reminder. When I saw the commercial, I thought, "That's it?" I still struggle agreeing with the amount of money spent for those 30 seconds, but with the amount of attention the commercial got before it even aired, I think they may have gotten a deal in terms of publicity.
Absolutely not. Never gotten upset before finding out the facts.
Great post!