Ted Williams, Take Two

When Ted Williams first burst into the national conversation a couple of weeks ago, everybody-and-his-brother in media were trying to get a piece of him. Many viewed his discovery as his salvation, seemingly the end of his hard life.

But some of us saw him as jumping from the frying pan into the fire and said his biggest test was yet to come.

A guy used to drinking himself to sleep under a bridge isn't suddenly going to do a 180 simply because he's been discovered and come into some money.

Fame and fortune might enable him to buy a better brand of booze and sleep in a more comfortable place, for awhile anyway, but they're not going to make him a better person or prolong his life. Just ask Jimi, Janis, John Belushi, and myriad others who've faced and failed the prosperity test.

His media handlers can clean him up for the cameras, but that's just for show. Ted's daily testing begins when the cameras and microphones are turned off.

His recent meltdown in a Los Angeles hotel and subsequent arrest, his daughter's revelation that he's been downing a fifth of vodka nightly, and most recently his own admission on Dr. Phil's show that he hasn't been able to handle the pressure confirm it.

What Ted Williams truly, desperately needs is a good soul-scrubbing.

Dr. Phil put it this way:

"If Ted is ever going to get better, he's got to be honest with himself and admit he's addicted to drugs and alcohol. Everyone is pulling for Ted, but his 15 minutes are going to be over and then he'll be left to manage a life filled with temptation."

Ted Williams is facing a difficult, some would even say impossible situation. But there is One for whom nothing is impossible. Ted would do well to yield to Him, and I hope that God will intervene to provide the beneficial influences—both human and circumstantial—that will help Ted Williams change his thinking, change his behavior, and over time—years, not days, weeks, or months—eventually undergo the change in his character, that will give him the inner resources to resist the temptations he will continue to face and keep him from squandering the opportunity he's been handed.

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:15-16)