As you may or may not know, Tiger Woods gave a speech this week on national television regarding his unfaithfulness to his wife. In the speech, he apologizes to his wife, family, friends and fans for his bad behavior. Being a fan of his golfing skills, I’m very glad that he chose to do this. I believe that he was very sincere and that he truly is sorry for having disappointed so many people.
There was one aspect of his speech that I did not like. Ten minutes into his speech (one minute into the video below), he mentions the reason why he cheated on his wife.
Tiger Woods: “People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist and I actively practice my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught.”
Tiger Woods doesn’t realize that his problem is inside his heart. He didn’t sin because he was craving for something outside himself, but because his heart was craving for something other than God. Tiger’s heart has not tasted the joy of God’s salvation and he fell into the same trap King David did (Psalm 51). The difference between King David and Tiger Woods is that David realized the true reason why he sinned: a lack of God’s joy in his heart.
Buddhism teaches meditation and unity and harmony inside our souls, but what Tiger doesn’t understand is that no matter how nice he is inside, his heart is still stained black with sin. That will never change until he craves forgiveness of sin from the almighty God who loves despite his mistakes.
Tiger has a serious craving for sexual sin and this problem will not go away with therapy or meditation, but only by the cherishing of the joy of God’s salvation. I pray that he gets this right one day.
We are DRIVEN 