Shaken by Tim Tebow Delivers

Shaken, Not Just for Sports Fans

A.C. Green penned the last sports celebrity book I read. I confess that I signed up to be in Tim Tebow’s book release team because of my students. Especially the boys who only want to read books about famous ball players (football, basketball, or baseball—doesn’t matter).

Sure, I had heard about Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos—but mostly through my raving-Broncos-fan students back when Tebow played for Denver.

The lure of a free book about a popular sports figure provided some enticement as well. Our school library can always use more books that boys want to read.

Now I work at a different school in a different state, a school where kids don’t have the same access to television and sports. The majority of the boys profess undying loyalty to the Cardinals.

Don’t get me wrong, I learned about football in college so that I could intelligently watch a game with a guy I had a crush on. I watch the Super Bowl every year. You get the picture. No one has ever called me a raving sports fan.

But back to Shaken: Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life’s Storms by Tim Tebow with A. J. Gregory.

This book does not serve as an autobiography or expanded trading card for a famous football player. In fact, I had to resort to Wikipedia to figure out the particulars of Tebow’s career.

Shaken Delivers

Shaken actually lives up to its subtitle ‘Discovering Your True Identity in the Midst of Life’s Storms.’ Tebow uses his personal highs and lows to show how one man can cling to his identity in Christ.

The book does not provide a chronological record of all Tebow’s highs and lows (the only slightly confusing part of the book for a non-football fan). It does provide a game plan for an extraordinary life (and the reader doesn’t have to aspire to stardom to achieve it).

I found it especially refreshing that Tebow doesn’t dwell on himself in every single chapter. He tells the stories of people who inspire him—stories that would never have a voice if Tebow didn’t tell them.

Tebow provides great insight into our hero-culture here in the United States: “While it’s disappointing to hear about role model falling short, it’s disappointing that we actually put others on a pedestal.”

Yeah. That ‘putting others on a pedestal’ has kept me from ever becoming a raving sports fan (or movie star fan). We all suffer from a terminal case of humanity and sinfulness. I love the fact that Tebow shares his struggles with staying humble as well as his pain when he received devastating news.

If you want to read a chest-thumping autobiography about a sports hero, buy somebody else’s book. But if you want to learn how a homeschooled kid turned his talents into a platform for helping others, go buy Unshaken.

I hope my sports-crazy students will devour this book. I want them to walk away with a new (or renewed) desire to discover their true identity.