I am Tiger Woods

Sufjan Stevens wrote a song a few years back entitled John Wayne Gacy Jr.. The chilling song tells the story of the serial killer who raped and killed young boys, and buried them underneath his house. After finishing the story, what Sufjan says next is remarkable. He ends the song with this line: "In my best behavior, I am really just like him. Look underneath the floorboards for the secrets I have hid."

Read that line again. Do you believe that? With the recent Tiger Woods saga, it's easy to point the finger at others mistakes and become self-righteous. But I happen to agree with Sufjan that I am no different than the most vile of offenders. My heart is sinful and rebellious, and in need of Jesus, same as anyone else.

Mike Wise, with the Washington Post, recently wrote an excellent article saying a very similar thing, though he doesn't explicitly state how Tiger can find redemption and forgiveness in Christ (as Brit Hume did recently). Here's his conclusion:

I am Tiger Woods, and I have poked fun at his travails because I use humor as camouflage, because if I were to deal with the truth, if the world were to know the details of my sad, pathetic electronic communication with other women at one time in my life, the horrific embarrassment would not just send me into seclusion; it would send me off the ledge.

It's easy -- maybe even natural -- to judge his actions and ignore what led to them:

Tiger Woods has an emotional void in his life. This void must be huge. For him to be where he is today, this deep emptiness must have consumed him, must be something he has been living with for a long time. Moreover, he has to live with his emptiness while being fully aware that everyone in the world knows just what a manufactured lie his image has been.

Having stared into this void, having known this hollowness, I can neither excoriate the guy nor exonerate him.

I am Tiger Woods, and because of that, I can only hope that he realizes he's sick and takes steps to get better."

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