As sports fans, we love winning, success, and watching the best players in the world perform at the highest level. We enjoy the stories of players overcoming obstacles that result in victory. We mock the losers and discredit the teams who fall short.

And then there is Tim Tebow. After experiencing success and failure in both college and the NFL, he’s now attempting to compete in a brand new sport – baseball.

As he chases his baseball dream, there will be many opinions and comments made about him and his career. People will say he’s crazy…he has no chance…it’s disrespectful to baseball players for him to even try. Yet Tebow is going for it anyway.

This is what he had to say after his showcase for scouts yesterday: “The goal would be to have a career in the big leagues,” Tebow said. “I just want to be someone to pursue what I believe in, what I’m passionate about. A lot of people will say, ‘But what if you fail? What if you don’t make it?’ Guess what? I don’t have to live with regret. I did everything I could. I pushed it. I would rather be someone that could live with peace and no regret than what-if, or being scared.”

What I appreciate most about Tebow’s approach to pursuing a baseball career, is the fact he’s not afraid to fail. Of course, he wants to do well, but the reality is he might fail badly. Either way, however, he’s made the decision to be all in!

When I stop to think about it, I realize there is great value in failure, yet we all try hard to avoid it. Our decisions in sports and life seem to be based on whether or not we will succeed – it’s all about winning, isn’t it? We don’t like putting ourselves in a position where we may lose, be rejected, or ultimately fail.

Most of us would never do what Tebow is doing because the fear of failure would be too great. How many opportunities have we missed out on because we were too scared it wouldn’t work out? How many times have we avoided a question because we assumed the answer would be no?

I’m a believer in trying something, even if we fail. Through failure we grow, learn, are humbled, find out what does and doesn’t work, and recognize our need for Jesus.

The Bible says in Psalm 73:26 (ESV), “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”

By being willing to embrace the possibility of failure, we bring ourselves to a deeper reliance on God – both in the process of taking risks and in the results.

Today, let’s be encouraged by Tim Tebow’s willingness to try, avoid regret, and embrace potential failure. I’m Bryce Johnson and you can unpack that!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I admit I don’t like to fail and I want to be a winner. However, I miss out on the chance to succeed when I allow the fear of failure to hold me back. Please provide me with the strength to recognize that I am weak and in need of your strength, both to take steps of faith and to respond well to failure. I thank you for Jesus, in His name I pray, Amen.