It ain’t gravity folks

June 23, 2022 – Click here to listen
One of the best, most courageous, and toughest football players of all time is Brett Favre. I have followed his career and been a fan for many years now. He set all kinds of records for playing this demanding sport including: most passing touchdowns, most consecutive starts, most passing yardage, etc.
His father was a coach and influenced him greatly. His dad died suddenly of a heart attack and in spite of their closeness to each other and his tremendous grief; Favre amazed the football world by playing a game the very next weekend. His play was extraordinary that night and it was a tear evoking scene watching him fight back tears of his own as he dedicated the game to his dad.
He was quarterback for the Green Bay Packers for many years and then got into a spat with management and switched to the Jets for a year and later with the Minnesota Vikings. During his one season with the Jets, he was accused of attempting to seduce a wannabe actress and several text messages and photos of Favre below the waist have appeared that allegedly were sent to her by Favre. The press started coming down hard on this story and of course then a couple of other women joined suite and claimed he came after them too. It is reminiscent of the press feeding frenzy on golfing legend Tiger Woods.
Another person I admired greatly went down a similar path. I always admired Mel Gibson. His lengthy marriage and devotion to it and his love for his many children were something to be admired, (especially by Hollywood standards). I loved his tough guy movies, but when he directed one of my all-time favorite movies, “The Passion” depicting the crucifixion of Christ I really became a fan.
That movie was a huge success for him, but for some reason soon thereafter he spiraled out of control. He was jailed for alcohol related problems and then shocked the world when his long time marriage ended. He was accused by his new wife of having a violent and abusive temper and she had the phone recordings of Gibson ranting at her and making profane and racist comments to back it up.
Favre, Gibson, Tiger Woods, and countless others before them seemed to have had it all, and yet as the saying goes, “How low the once proud and mighty have fallen”. It just goes to show that when all the fog has lifted we are after all – only human.
It ain’t gravity folks – It’s just sin.
The Fox News website has a feature that shows photographs of actors and actresses “then and now”. Some of the once beautiful gals and formerly handsome guys don’t look so good now, (and that is a very kind way of putting it).
YIKES! Who would want their “then and now” photos to be shown to the world? Which brings me to an interesting point, who would want any of their weaknesses and missteps through life, (sin) printed in tabloids for the world to jeer and sneer at?
Jesus said that whoever is without sin should cast the first stone. We should pray for those who succumb to sin and not stone them via gossip, (“Where no wood is, there the fire goes out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceases.”).
Tabloids make billions exposing other folk’s weaknesses to the world. Against my objections for many years my wife would add to their fortunes every time she went to a grocery store and passed the latest gossip rag. I faithfully recited to her Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.”

James 3:5
Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.