How We Are Measured

Let's continue to talk about how we refer to the recently departed. Last week, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair and a female companion were found shot to death in an apartment he and a friend owned. As it turns out, the woman was his girlfriend (he is married with four kids) and it appears that she killed him and then shot herself. I have two reactions to this story and to the reaction to the story:

1. Paul wrote: Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life (Galatians 6:7-8, NIV). This does not mean there is a direct event-by-event correlation of my sinful event to a bad thing that happens to me. It means that when you indulge in sin, somehow, someway, the results of sinfulness will come back on you. In McNair's case, it came back direct and hard. The latest news is that she was distraught that he might be seeing another girl (after all, why would she trust him--he is already a liar and cheater).

2. Several sportswriters have taken great pains to say that McNair's life should not only be measured by how he died or what he was doing that may have caused his death. Fair enough to a point--his life was more than the end of it. However, these same sportswriters seem to want to just sweep it under the rug, as in, let's just remember his football success, charity work, and how his teammates loved him. But you can't just ignore the fact that he was unfaithful to his wife and died as a result. His children will not have their daddy for the rest of their lives because he couldn't keep his pants zipped up. Harsh, but tell me I'm wrong.

So how should we remember him? As a very good football player, wonderful teammate, and questionable family man who brought on his own death by his adultery. If he was a mixture (by society's standards) of good and bad, then let's say he was a mixture.