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)

"Golden Voice" Ted Williams' Biggest Test Is Still to Come

Unless you've been in a coma or completely insulated from media this week, you're familiar with the story of Ted Williams, the one-time radio announcer, gifted with a "bottomless" golden voice, whose submission to alcohol, cocaine, crack and the wrong crowd led him to abandon his family and career for a "life" on the streets of Columbus, Ohio.

On a Sunday a few weeks ago, a man and his family on their way to church stopped at the intersection where Williams was panhandling and pressed a $20 bill into his hand. That got Ted's attention in a big way, just as his astonishing "pipes" got theirs. The man who stopped happens to work for the Columbia Dispatch, and he was curious to learn more about the man with the big voice. So he asked for and received Ted's permission to record video and sound of him soliciting donations at the exit ramp.

The video went viral. When I saw it on Facebook, thanks to a couple of friends in voiceover and radio, it had had a few hundred views. A day or two later, over five million others had seen it.

Suddenly, Ted Williams is an international celebrity. Appearances on GMA, Today, Fallon, Leno. A station in Hawaii wants to fly him there, all expenses paid, to do a few drop-ins. The Cleveland Cavaliers want him to be their stadium announcer. Job offers are coming out of the woodwork.

And therein lies Ted Williams' biggest challenge, and it's a monster.

How will he handle the pressures of fame and fortune being thrust upon him after having spent years on the streets, not by chance but by choice.

Yes, it's a hard thing to say: "choice." But, like all of us, Ted Williams has volition. Free will. He was free to choose and made bad choices, destructive choices. His children and mother say they tried to help, but he refused it.

I'm not condemning him. Nor am I claiming to understand his situation. I've not walked in his shoes, nor have I slept where he's slept, nor have I shared a meal with him. Like you, I only know what I've seen and heard in the media.

But it's hardly a stretch to say that Ted Williams' downward spiral into substance abuse, family abandonment, and homelessness was largely of his own making.

The Bible informs us that a tendency toward sin and evil is a common characteristic of the human race (Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:23, 6:23), no exceptions save One.

And yet, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are a functioning conscience and the personal freedom to respond to its dictates, no man is forced to act contrary to his own best interests.

I believe God has given Ted Williams another chance. By his own admission and the statements of others close to him, his redemption from life on the streets is the result of divine intervention and an answer to many prayers.

But as enviable as his new-found fortune may seem, it's fraught with dangers. Men inclined to self-destructive behavior find it so much easier to indulge themselves under prosperity than under adversity.

Williams himself has likened his good fortune to hitting the lottery. Ironically, in the same week, two people who live within 150 miles of me split a Mega Millions jackpot worth nearly $400 million. One hopes they have the capacity to handle the tsunami of green, having read the stories of lottery winners coming into tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, squandering their lives and fortune through dissipation.

In fact, our history is full of stories of millionaires, moguls and movie stars who've come to tragic ends and premature deaths, solely because they couldn't handle extreme prosperity, power, or popularity.

I believe that what Ted Williams is going to need most of all is prayer and the love of family and friends who aren't attracted to his money or fame, but who simply want to see him become the man God wants him to be.

I wish him well.
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When News and Advertising Collide

The unfortunate juxtaposition of antithetical messages can and does happen in all media, of course.

Still, one wonders how this one got past the page editor.

More to the point, did the advertiser notice?