Put a New Spirit Within Me

6You desire truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
9Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.

A faithful reader observed last week that I must be the only person in the blogosphere who hasn't commented on the Tiger Woods debacle. At the time I don't think Tiger had fully admitted his infidelity, and I like so many others was sickened by the "feeding frenzy," even though everything pointed to his being a world class schmuck. What is more immoral, his serial cheating or the prurient pursuit of "the dirt" of his personal life? He is the subject of much scorn and many jokes: "Confucius say, he who drives well on the fairway, does not always fair well on the driveway" is one I can repeat.

I will reflect now because Tiger Woods has admitted his wrong-doing without attempting to blame anyone else. He has suffered personal consequences as a result of his unfaithfulness and he has promised to put aside fame, glory and reward, in order to mend the brokenness in his marriage -- something which honestly may be impossible. I suppose we will eventually know his level of sincerity.

The verses above from Psalm 51 are read every year as we enter into the season of Lent rather than Advent. They are the lament of King David who had it all, but wanted more. He understands that he is morally ill and needs to be restored to spiritual health. There are times when each of us needs to get on the right track with God when our lives are a mess. It's just that some of us are more famous than others. Our Christian faith invites us to say we are sorry and move forward in forgiveness toward reconciliation.

Perhaps the great immorality behind this story is that someone can become a billionaire by playing a sport well. Just when did we lose our moral compass on this one and idolize people for playing games?

Thoughts?