Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1275 | Tim Tebow Opens Up About Where He’s Fallen Short as a Christian

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Jase repents to Tim Tebow after admitting he sorely misjudged him when they first met, assuming his bold faith was an act. Tim opens up about fatherhood, marriage, and the conviction that sparked Tim���s new book — imagining the crucifixion from the perspective of the tree that held Jesus. The guys wrestle with a piercing question: when we stay silent about Christ, is it because we don’t really believe the gospel or because we don’t love people enough? Check out Tim’s poignant new book here: https://www.amazon.com/If-Tree-Could-Speak-Story/dp/1400256399 In this episode: Luke 19, verse 40; Ephesians 2, verses 8–9; Ephesians 2, verse 10 “Unashamed” Episode 1275 is sponsored by: https://stopboxusa.com — Get 10% off at StopBox when you use code UNASHAMED at checkout.  https://texassuperfood.com — Get 35% off your first order when you use code Unashamed. https://meetfabric.com/unashamed — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/at-home-with-phil-robertson/id1835224621 Chapters: 00:00 Ice Storm Aftermath & Jase’s Injury 06:25 Special Guest Tim Tebow  09:40 Rivalry & Repentance 13:05 Marriage, Fatherhood & Responsibility 18:30 The Sermon That Sparked the Book 24:10 If the Tree Could Speak Explained 36:20 From Shame to Throne: The Cross Reframed 42:10 Parenting, Legacy & Teaching the Cruciform Life 48:05 Final Thoughts & Where to Find the Book — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. There's a buzz in the air. Jace was late to the buzz. Jason, thanks for being late. We got a very special guest coming up today. I know. He's in our virtual waiting room and now we're waiting on you. We're actually good friends with this guest and this will be spectacular. I will go ahead and preview that. But I just figured,

I had a lot of things happen out. I can tell you the story at some point, but I had a lot of... I'll let you explain it to our guess later. I had a lot of self-imposed delays this morning, but I figured, oh, this guy's a big deal. You imposed them on yourself? Yeah, I did.

Yeah, these were all... Oh, these still storm related? Is it still related to it? Well, it's sometimes... I'm still dealing with that. Yeah. Well, it was kind of like a guy last night I was talking to, and he was talking about his, he was on his fifth wife,

and I just had to do it in the spirit of Phil. I thought, at some point, you got to ask yourself a question, is it me? Is it you? Did you say that? Did you say it? And I was kind of kidding, you know, and this dude's face fell, and he's like, yeah.

I mean, and I thought, well, maybe you need to hear that. What do you say would you say that? What was the response? He was like, are you serious? I was like, yes. I mean, I was kind of kidding, but now that you put me on the spot, I'm just saying, a little self-inventory once in a while. Jay's, you were so right in the spirit of Phil because the first time I heard that,

dad told that to Terry Bradshaw after having not talked to him in 40-something years, and Bradshaw, I've noticed something about you, son. He said, you can't seem to hold on to a woman. Yeah. I mean, that's dad's lie. And I mean, my eyes got big and I thought, Dad, dude. And he said, I know it, Phil. He said, the last one left me when I was standing there eating a bowl of cereal in my underwear.

She just said, I'm out of here. He said, what is, what do you think is wrong? And he said, it might be you, branch up. It might be because you were standing there in your underwear eating a bowl of cereal. And look, I remember him saying, that's why my hair fell out. That's fine. I mean, all that was true. That really happened.

No, I think, you know, it's like yesterday, Jep came over and he's like, he bought him a little saw because we got all these trees everywhere. And he said, I can't get this saw to work. You know, while I looked at it, and I was like, yep, it's a toy that somebody put, it's a saw. And I'm sure it was cheap and you bought it. That's for like trimming a little branch off a small, small, small bush. But then I realized at some point he wasn't bringing that saw over for me to say, what's wrong with this saw?

He was doing that for me to go over there and clean up his yard with my soul, which is what happened. So after about two hours, I said, yep, you know that I realized what you were doing two hours ago, but you're my brother. and I did it anyway. It's funny, Jay's how we all have the same relationship with Jeff, because he's like our little brother, but he's quite a bit younger than us.

So it's almost like your second dad or an uncle or something, because he does me the same way. He'll come up with some bad situation, and I know what he's going to want me to do. Yeah, and he made an investment. Look, he went and paid probably $30 for this saw, knowing it, I mean, his yard looked like a tornado. And he's like, then I'll take it over there once I break the chain off of it, which he did.

And I'll be like, well, let me, you know, let me go down there and take a look at this. But, you know, it was some good bonding time. So I know that you guys out there in Unashamed Nation are saying to yourselves, man, they're still talking about this storm. That's the level of this storm. We're now weeks are going by and we're still digging out from everything that happened to us. This thing was unbelievable. I heard the word catastrophic when they were talking about the storm, and I kind of roll my eyes and thought, oh, here are these weather people going all.

But they were right about this one. This is the least amount of stress that I've had in years. Because my working out regime, which is if you see me sawing trees or cutting, splitting logs, I usually just do that when I'm frustrated or. tent. Well, I'm having to do this now just so we can get down, you know, I'm walking down to Jeff's house. And so we're doing so much of it is my point. Yeah, so you get a lot of good workouts. Oh, yeah, it's good. I'm not going to complain about my injuries, but I did injure my wrist. And so that was one of the reasons I was late because I reached down and grabbed my coffee cup,

which I'm going to do with both hands right now. And when I picked it up, a pain. to shut up my arm because I forgot my wrist was hurt but I'm like if I can't pick up a cup of coffee maybe I need to look into this so here's what happened when I left the house I realized about two minutes into it

that I set this down because it hurt my wrist and I thought I hurt myself over that coffee and now I've left it so I had to do a U-turn and go back and get my coffee that was the first part of the delay.

Well, Jay's, it sounds like to me maybe your workout regimen that you're so proud of, you maybe get a little long in the tooth for the deep dive you're doing into this tree cutting process. You may have to take a little time off to get away from me. You had to do what I did. I loaded it up and told my kids, I said, all right, I helped you get through it. Now, I'm heading down to somewhere that's sunnier and there's no trees down. So you all handle the cleanup.

Take care. Well, then I made my wife, Matt, because she's. said, oh, she thought I came back to kiss her. And I was like, well, actually, I came back to get my coffee. Because I hurt my hand picking it up. And I thought, and now I left it. So she said, I know where you left it. Look, she came back and brought my coffee, and she had two Advil in her hand.

That's a good woman. All right. So we kept our guests waiting long enough. When we come back from this break, we have a very special guest. And one of our members of our team is tingling with anticipation over who we have coming up today. So you'll see on the other side of this break. We'll see them. So, Jay, the Second Amendment is always an important one for us because the right to bear arms is the right to protect ourselves, right?

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That's Code Unashamed at StopboxUSA.com. Bebo, you need some wilderness in your life. Welcome to Unashamed. This has gotten funny. I'm really excited about this. You know, for a bunch of country bumpkins, we run a pretty, professional. I mean, this studio I'm in, it's like. Yeah, this from the guy that's late. We run a pretty professional. Always remember this, Tebow. If you're late, you better have a

story. So welcome back to Unashamed. Our mystery guest has arrived. We're super excited about this. This is a big day for Unashamed. One of our favorite people on the planet. The Florida Gator legend himself, Tim Tebow. Welcome to him. Thank you guys so much for having me. So grateful. Looking forward to this and just being with you guys. And thank you for your love for Jesus and for being unashamed. So grateful.

So before we started there and earlier we were talking to a little bit to him. And I had to get this 500 pound gator out of the way because Zach is a major fanboy. And he's trying to act out cool because he's met you before. But like his heart's pounding. You know, he's singing. I'm not a much of chess right now. It's kind of sad, really. I feel sorry for you.

I'm embarrassed for you, Zay. For being a Gator fan? Are there a Tbo fan? Yeah, for being nervous. Well, we're going to make it work, but it is good to have you here, for sure. I'm the only Gator on this thing. And every time we win a national championship in basketball or something, like recently, these guys give me a hard time.

Well, you know, it does feel good that we could get that championship last year. It's been too long since we've got a championship. football. So at least we can celebrate basketball. So, Jace, I told Tim earlier that you and I had to repent. No, you may not have. I don't know. You may still be a wayward center. But that I had to repent because when Tim was slaying our tigers back in his glory days of Florida, that we didn't really like him, but we loved him because he was our brother. And he was like so bold for Jesus. And now that all that football is behind us, we just love it.

I had repentance. I had repentance because Thiebo, I didn't like you, man, because you were a Florida Gator. And when you came to LSU, you did a little phone thing. And I was like, I guarantee you that guy's a hypocrite. I bet $100. This is all. Then I met him.

And I was like, oh, darn. He's a real deal. Well, you exceeded my expectation, which I use your story a lot because, I mean, you know how this is. We meet a lot of famous people. in our world and you're constantly disappointed because you're like, oh my goodness, this person really needs Jesus. I mean, they're in trouble.

I mean, I have that over and over happen. It's just what you're seeing, the image they're portraying through their music or acting or whatever, and it's usually disappointed or even professional athletes because there's so many temptations and vices in that world. But Tim, I have to admit, you know, I met you. I was like, okay, he exceeded my expectations. Then I met your family and your parents and I just fell in love and all the work that you do. And in a weird world, we're actually friends because we don't have anything in common.

Besides Jesus. He looks good. He doesn't look like he just came in off the homeless row. Yeah, there's a lot of differences for me. We do have a lot of differences, but, you know, it's cool. We have a lot in purpose. And, you know, I would first probably echo those thoughts. of, I appreciate the nice words and compliments, but, you know, when, you know, people share things like that,

the first thing I want to share is absolutely, I'm a hypocrite. Man, I fall short of the grace of Jesus every day. And Christianity is not about this race to go from average to a little bit better or good to great. Christianity is dead to alive. And there was nothing that we could do or that I could do, that I was a sinner saved by grace for by grace that I have been saved through faith. It is not of my works. It is the gift of God so no one can boast. But if we do boast, we boast on him. And I just would tell everybody, man, you look at me long enough and I promise I'm going to let you down, unfortunately. But you look at Jesus. He's never going to let you down.

So I am far from the role model that I should be, but I'm trying to grow in that sanctification every day of it. I'm just grateful that God uses screw-ups, and therefore I'm not disqualified. Amen. What a great word. We've set the tone. The bar is high. So, Tim, I've got to ask you this because we were talking before we started air, and I told you the last time I'd seen you, we just happened to run into you in an airport in Amsterdam. of all places. And your whole family was with you. And this is before you were married. And so just had

a great conversation with your mom and dad, who I've really gotten to love and know and have great conversations with. But I wanted to know since I haven't talked to since then, what's life been like now with a wife and a daughter since the last time I talked to you? How has that blessed you in terms of, you know, your life you're living now? Well, it kind of changes everything. Let's be honest, right? You, you, uh, just the blessing of marriage and man, like I never played on special teams, but I definitely out kicked my coverage, right? And, and I'm just so grateful. I just, you know, I love Demi so much and, um, just so grateful for, uh, the relationship we get to have. And I just think that God does so much in marriage of, of, of refining you in it, of challenging you

in it of molding you in it because you also realize how far you are from where you need to be. And then I think on top of that when you're blessed with kids and we only have one right now and Daphne, but then you're also the, I think the level of responsibility is so heightened. Like I just remember when we came home from the hospital and we put Daphne down in the bassinet, I was like, okay, Demi, what do we do now? Like, what's this? What's the seven-step plan? Where's the, like, where's the manual?

Where's the game plan? Like, where's like, you know, day one install and then, like, you can't like. And it's just, it's kind of surreal. But I just think how God uses so many of these things in life to continue to show you the areas that you need to grow. and the challenge of it and the responsibility and the blessing all at the same time. I just think it's just so freaking cool. It is. Tim, I read your book last night.

I was in a worldly environment in front of people. And I get so nervous because someone I respect or friends because I thought, man, he's coming here to promote this book. And what if I don't like it? Because I have to, I'm going to repent a lot today. Oh, I said, what's it called? And it's if the tree could speak. And I thought, well, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

That was my initial. Because look, these Florida Gator Gainesville. That was my response. Maddie was a witness to that. And look, we just had an ice storm, and every tree. Within 100 miles of here has fallen, which is why I was late today, which was embarrassing. I walked in, I thought, Tebow, he'll be late anyway. I was trying to take a picture because we did this whole thing about Mexican whistling tree ducks in a previous podcast somewhere.

And multiple trees have fallen in our pond. And I'm driving by today and I look. And there's 12 of these ducks lined up on this fallen tree. It was really beautiful because I said, you know, this was just some pruning here. All these trees lost their limbs, but give it a year because it's kind of a reflection, you know, the earthly problems and storms. It reflects our lives. And I thought, this is going to be better for the trees.

But anyway, when I heard that, I've been chainsawing so much. And I thought, if the tree could speak, they're screaming all around me right now. just because of the damage that had been done. So it kind of caught me in a weird emotional moment. But anyway, I tried to take the picture, but then I look up and there's a car coming. So I pull over on the side of the road. Well, then I couldn't find my phone because it had fallen between the seats. Well, then I looked up, and now there's a car in front of me.

And I'm like, I've stopped civilization here to try to get this picture, which I never got because I never found my phone. So I honked the horn wave. I was late. That was my story. I thought it was kind of weird. That's the rabbit hole. That's the rabbit hole.

That's the rabbit hole. Well, the backstory of that was, so Tebow, my wife says we were doing this thing for local Christian school. And she's like, why don't you get Tebow to come and speak? I was like, babe, he's never, we met him like twice. We went to his event. But she said, well, he said, if there's anything I can do for you. And I was like, let me just be clear.

He's not coming to Funro, which our name of our town is Monroe. And I said, he's not coming to Funro, Louisiana, just on a whim. And she's like, I think he would. And sending him a text. I was like, okay, this is embarrassing. So I sent him a text. He's like, yeah, when you want me to be there? And you actually came and did that.

So I looked like an idiot. So, Jay, there's always some kind of new. thing out there for your health and some super powerful this, that, or the other. And it's hard to know when you see all these ads for things. You need to be able to trust somebody. And so we trust Texas superfood. And the reason why is because our old pal, Dr. Dennis Black, is the one who invented it. He invented this 25 years ago to help people get the nutrition value that they need. It's got 55 vine, ripen fruits and vegetables, probiotics, and enzymes. And customers feel the difference in just seven days. More energy all day long, mental clarity instead of brain fog, better sleep,

just feeling better about your health. Zach talks about it all the time. He and Jill been taking this product for a while. They've noticed the change and the difference. Do you think it's made Zach seem smarter? Well, it did because I was glad that he tried it first, and now I got me a bottle, but I wanted to make sure, okay, this works. That's a good product. Well, he loves it, so does Jill. You can mix the powder in your morning smoothie, or you can take capsules on the go. There have been over a million bottles sold, not because of fancy marketing, but because real results create loyal customers.

So we want you to go to TexasSuperfood.com. Use the discount code unashamed to get 35% off your first order. Plus, there's 100% satisfaction guarantee. That's Texassuperfood.com discount code unashamed. But while you were here, he was there a couple of hours and he's like, uh, Where do you go to work out? And I was like, work out. I work outside.

And so I took him to Willie's yard because the tree had fallen. And I gave him an axe and actually took a picture. It's out there on social media somewhere. And somebody said it went viral, I guess. And I was like, working out with Tim Tebow, just ordinary. Do you remember that, Tim? Of course I do. Yeah.

So that's what I've been doing. So I did take a picture. I've been working out a lot. I took a picture of my yard before I came up here. I did get that picture. But the tree keeps coming up, though. So that's great. The title work, you know, Tim.

And I want to ask you, in your author's notes, you said that this whole idea came to you while you were listening to somebody priest during a sermon. And I wanted to get a little backstory on that. And then I know we're going to talk about what the book is. It's really good, by the way. It is excellent. Yeah.

What was it in that? that sermon, what was it that spurred you to spark that, sparts your mind to write this? Well, I'm not a great sleeper. And one morning, I couldn't sleep super early in the morning. I got up. I went down to our TV room and I was just kind of rolling out my legs on like some therapy, like lacrosse balls and stuff while I was playing Madden. And then I put on a sermon and I was listening to my pastor here in Jacksonville, Pastor Jobi Martin. And it really wasn't on what the sermon was about. But sometimes you're listening to something,

and then something hits your brain, and you start going down a rabbit trail, as we've heard today. And then all of a sudden, I just get onto this thought that I had had in a couple of previous times, but just never as profound, of really kind of thinking about Luke 1940, when Jesus is making his triumphal entry into Jerusalem,

and the Pharisees are saying, like quiet everybody down like and because they're praising him and he says um you know if they don't praise me the rocks will cry out and i just started thinking and really got convicted and became very emotional and started weeping on the floor of man how many times in my life have other forms of god's creation been so wanting to praise him because i have stayed so quiet because i didn't do my job. And then the next thought that I had was, as I'm thinking about this, I just started to think, man, if God's creation is so, like, ready and wanting to praise him for who he is, because they know, like, they know who God is, right? They've been created. They know their creator.

And if the rocks are so wanting to praise him, how much more so would the tree, that Jesus died on, want to praise him. And so I just get on this thought in my head, and it just won't leave me. And a couple of days later, me and Wyatt and Kevin, who are on our team, we fly to go preach at an event. And on our way there, I just share very emotionally what I was thinking about and Wyatt starts just jotting it down

and voice recording. We kind of talk, and I don't know. I don't know if I want to do anything with this. It's just a thought that you feel like, convicted that I don't know what to do. I just think I'm supposed to share this with somebody. And so we don't know anything of what we want to do, but we just start kind of jotting down these thoughts. And I don't know if it's a children's book, if it's a grown-up book, if whatever. I just, it's a changing of perspective that I feel like God was challenging me

and my perspective of how I was thinking about just in my tenderness to Calvary's Cross, to tenderness to the love of God. And so we ended up going back and telling the story of when this tree was first a little seed and then growing up and blossoming and then with hopes and dreams of maybe being turned into a door or a table or a throne. And then those dreams being dashed when it's cut into and then made into a cross, literally an instrument of shame for excruciating pain. Like in history, the cross was made as an instrument of torture and shame and guilt that was literally created for excruciating pain.

That is a symbol for all of these terrible things. And now this cross with these dreams is made into that, not realizing that one day he was going to be a throne. And it was going to be a disfigured throne, but a throne that was going to hold up the king of kings. and that it was going to be a doorway. Because of what Jesus did, it was going to be part of that doorway for us to get into heaven because of the love of God. And I could only think just when I was thinking about this,

if God gave the tree the ability to speak, what would he have said to Jesus? And I could only imagine this thought of like, when he finally came to know the love of God and the love that Jesus had and felt the blood of Jesus, like on his core, like if he just said with all these people mocking Jesus, if the tree could speak, what would he really say? And I think he would tell Jesus, hey, Jesus, if you just give me a voice for a little bit,

I'll tell them all. I'll tell them all. I'll tell them all of your love. I'll tell them all. And I could only imagine Jesus saying to the cross, no, I didn't give you that job. I gave you the job to hold me up high and you're doing a good job. I gave them that job. And I just started to think like, man, how often I haven't done my job.

Like, and I, you know, I've just over the last few years been really convicted, why so many times in my life have I not been willing to share the greatest love story rescue mission of all time? Because the cross in Christ crucified is the only thing that changes everything about everything. It is the only thing that if the life, the death, the burial, and the resurrection, ascension of Jesus Christ is true, then it changes everything. It changes the past. It changes the present. It changes the future. If it is not true, then everything else is awash. It's irrelevant. It all comes down to the cross. And if the cross is true, which I believe with my whole heart that is true, why so many times have I been unwilling to share? and I really came down to two things.

One, either I don't really believe the message of the gospel or two, I don't really love people enough because I couldn't actually find another excuse for why so many times I just wasn't willing to share. And you could find them all over the place, but man, it really came down ultimately to those two things. Did I just really not believe the gospel? or did I really not love people enough that I was willing to care more about them liking me than them knowing Jesus? And I feel like I failed at that so much that I have chose people liking me over them

knowing the love of God. And that was just some of the heart behind this and trying to tell this in a fresh new way where people would get a new perspective and we wouldn't grow callous to the cross, because some of my favorite heroes in the faith, especially my mom and dad, when you bring up Calvary's Cross, man, they can't help but get emotional because they're so tender to it. And we just, I think sometimes in the churchy world, we grow up in it, and it just becomes these like words and phrases

we say all the time. And we forget the tenderness and the compassion and the sacrifice that we need to, and the reverence we need to hold when we talk about the cross because of severity, because it is everything. And I think when we really understand the gospel, I think there's three things that really stand out. One is we realize the gravity of what we have been saved from,

that we have been saved from eternal separation from God. There is a weight into gravity that it's not just, oh, sin, nail Jesus to the cross. No, my sin. My sin, nail Jesus. Like the whips that whip Jesus should be named after me. The nails should be named after me. There's a weight and a gravity to understand because how do you really understand grace if you don't understand what you have been saved from?

Right? And so I think it starts by understanding what you have been saved from that it's not like, ooh, you were extortive average and now you're a little bit better. It's no, bro. You were dead and because of Christ, you were made alive with him, period, flat out. You know, and then it's we have to understand who we have been saved by. that we have been saved by a king that loves us so much that was willing to go to the cross, didn't want to, but did it anyways.

It's literally like that. If there's another way, take this cup from me, but not my will, thy will be done. I'll do it anyways because I love you and I want to obey my father and I love humanity and I'm going to go to the cross anyways. And he takes on the sin of the world. First of all, he takes on the physical pain, which we can't even imagine. then he takes on the sin of the world. And I just can't even possibly comprehend. You know, the Bible tells us that he became sin on our behalf.

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So join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. apply today in just minutes at meetfabric.com slash unashamed. That's meetfabric.com slash unashamed. M-E-E-T Fabric.com slash unashamed. Policies issued by Western Southern Life Assurance Company not available in certain states. Prices subject to underwriting and health questions. I also believe that there is a tearing in the relationship of him and God the Father when Jesus is on the cross. And I can't even imagine. They have a perfect relationship before there was ever a thing called time. And but Jesus knew that God had to turn his back on him so he would never have to turn his back on us and he was willing to do it. And so when we understand the love of God and the

love of Jesus and how that is all brought together in the Trinity, it's just this, the most mind-boggling thing. Like he loves us enough. Like he loves me enough as a sinner. Not when I like actually did a couple things that were okay. No, like God demonstrated his love for us that why, we were yet sinners. While I'm an enemy and a traitor, he still chose me and he chose you. Like, that's crazy. And then the third thing that I think is overwhelming about the gospel is what we have been safe for that, you know, Ephesians 210, for we are his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he has prepared beforehand for us to walk in. Like, like, yes, we are safe from eternal separation. We are safe for heaven. We're saved in a

relationship with Christ, all these amazing things, but we're also saved for good works that God has prepared for us why we were here. And God doesn't need us on his team, but he wants us and invites us to be on his rescue team, to go bring the good news of the gospel and set captives free and love and tell and preach and give and care and pray and all of these things. Like, it's just the most overwhelming thing. And I just never want the gospel to get old. And I want to it will be callous to it because it is everything and it changes everything. And this message, I just hope, gives people a fresh new perspective of the love of Christ and the sacrifice on Calvary's cross. Yeah, I definitely think that it does that. I mean, we talk on this podcast a lot about the last

thing you said of the gospel doesn't end with just what Christ saved us from. Also, it extends into what has he saved us too and what has he saved us for. I really love, by the way, if you get the book, it's animated, so you've got a, I guess you connected with this, let me look up his name, hold on. Ramelle Ruiz, he's a awesome.

Yeah, you connected with Ramel Ruiz. How did you guys get connected? Because he did all the illustration for it. He did. And he did, and he did such a good job. And to give him so much credit, before he ever started writing anything, and before he ever started any of his sketches, he studied the crucifixion and the resurrection

for two months to best try to understand it. And he's done work with the Bible project and so many different people. And so it was just, you know, me, Wyatt, and Ramel just really trying to work on this and trying to bring it to life. And I think probably one of my favorite drawings in there is when you see closer to the end of the book, when you see the face of Jesus and you see him beaten and torn, but you see how kind his eyes are. And I could just imagine if you got a up close look at Jesus, that that would just be one of my guesses of maybe what he looked like.

But I'd love to him that it was the beauty of this personifying of the cross, because the cross is all of us in the book to me. Like, you know, he was, he looked at. And he heard Carpenter and he thought, you know, maybe I'll be shaped into this dreams and hopes that I want to be. And then, of course, the world gets him and it's totally different. It winds up in the shame, as you mentioned. And then I love the picture that, and I never thought about this before. This was such an outman for me.

As Jesus is walking ahead, you know, and the cross is being carried behind him, he's following Jesus up to Galgotha. And in that moment, he has a decision to make as, as the. the cross. And when he gets there, he's upset. He says, you know, I'm put here by this person. And so he joins in in his mind with all of those that are cursing Jesus and, you know, calling all these slurs on him until he sees that love you mentioned in his eyes and then feels his blood. And then, of course, something changes inside the cross. And I know that spoke so much to me because just like you just shared, I mean, that's any of us. That's all of us. And the fact that the cross talked about sharing the spikes, because not only did they go through Jesus, they went through him.

That's right. And that really does personify it. So I just thought the metaphor of it was beautiful. And it spoke to me as that's me, just like it did to you. Yeah. And that's what the cross does. You know, it should personalize it for every single one of us. I think so often we have these dreams and we really trust our dreams. more than we trust that God's plan for our life is better than our dream for our life. And that's a little bit of the cross series.

Like, man, I want to be made all of these things. And I have these hopes and dreams. But he didn't realize that in a different way, he was going to be all those things except so much better. Like now, if you look around the world, no matter where you go, you will see crosses. And it is a symbol of hope. Is it a symbol of honor? Is it a symbol of reverence?

Right. But in that time, it's none of those things. It is just a symbol of shame, but you look what our God can do. Our God can take what is meant for evil and he can turn it into something for good. And I just think the cross is the perfect example. Like we don't even know that in our society that the, you know, we see crosses and their tattoos and their necklaces and earrings and bracelets and all these things. But we don't even realize that this used to be just. it was no hope. It was an instrument of shame. Yeah. Just for torture, for excruciating pain. Like, it's just, you know, they didn't even know, they didn't even have a word to describe the pain that Jesus went through. And so they came up with the word excruciating.

And excruciating literally means out of the cross. Like, it's, that's, it's just, but yet what God can do with it. But so many times we like kind of hear that, but we're like, yeah, but my life's a little different. No, it's not. God can do the same with our lives. Like, he can take our disappointments, our heartache, our brokenness, our failed dreams, and do so much more than we could ask, think, or imagine with it. Why? Because he's God and we're not. Well, I had a good illustration last night.

So I had to go to a birthday party, one of my buddies. And, you know, we played cards. But I had to read this book because. We want to talk about it. And I was nervous about it. And so I started reading this. Well, I'm kind of in a worldly environment. You know, some of these guys are believers, some are not.

And the guy next to him, he said, what are you reading? I said, Tim Tebow's got a new book coming out. And he said, what's it called? So I was like, if the tree could speak, he thought, well, what does that mean? So in that moment, I'm giving some fuel here. I realize this is a conversation starter. Here's this fella. And, you know, he's trying to wrap his head around it.

And I was toward the end. And I said, like, I always get nervous because he was like, you know Tim Tebow? I was like, yeah, he's going to be on a podcast tomorrow. He's like, are you serious? I was like, yep. I was going to talk about this book. He said, well, how is it? I said, oh, it's fantastic.

I was like, because my biggest thing to get nervous about is when a friend is going to be on. And then I'm like, oh, he's written a book. What if I don't like it? Because I didn't like the title because I didn't know what it was talking about. And I said, but this is fantastic. I said, you know what I really found fascinating? Of course, I'm telling this guy, but I realize the card game has stopped. Because it's like, you know, people know who you are.

And they're like, is he coming here? And I was like, look, don't be trying to follow me around and me. It's probably going to be soon. We already got one fanboy here. Let's don't get any more. I said, what's fascinating is like if you read this, this book, and it's only 68 pages, I think. And I said, there's very few words. And it's illustrated beautifully.

I said, but what I found I'm fascinated about it is there's nothing in here. about Tim Tebow until you get to the footnotes after the book is over. And he's like, really? I was like, nothing. You would never know that he wrote this. I said, it's basically the story of God's love from the cross's perspective, not the person, just the wood itself being a tree. And I said, there's a few rhyming words and all.

But it's so simple. and it's so authentic. I said, it's absolutely fantastic. It's stunning. Clever, yeah, and simple. And he's like, well, where do I go to get this book? And so now everybody's jotting down. What was the name of that book?

And I thought, oh, this is working. This is working and it hasn't even been released yet. And so that was my book review. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. I had to repent for being nervous. And I wanted to say this because we talked about, we asked you about being a father. I did some point in there, because I'm a father,

and I realize this God, God has brought him his wife, and he's now had a kid. These are the type of perspectives, I think, you find from understanding relationships in your own life. And so I really think that contributed to that. I don't know, for some reason I felt like I had to say that because I thought, man, when you're a father, all of a sudden, you're like, gulp. You know, how do I, how do I do this? And here you have the greatest father in the world and to imagine him, you know, given his son in this way. And I do think there was a power element here. You know, the Romans were not on the reason they invented the cross or carried on its tradition.

because it's saying, look, you think you have a following, you think you're going to take on us, let us be really clear how powerful we are and what we can do on the earth and how puny you are. Not only will we kill you, we will shame you. We will make you a public spectacle. And in God's wisdom and love, he somehow takes this most terrorizing act

in that moment of history and shows his true power of the transformation. Jay, there were three pages in the book that dealt. I felt like directly with that. And Tim, you can correct me if I'm wrong. But when you had the picture where it got dark and the cross is wondering what's happening here, where did this darkness come from?

And then Jesus utters the words, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In that moment to realize the heaviness that was there and the darkness is there that comes before, course the light that shines later, I felt like that spoke to that so powerfully in the idea, but even the Godhead itself, you know, and all a creation in that moment realizes the bigness of that moment, you know. And so that was another powerful scene to me in the book. Oh, thank you. I, um, one of my favorite lines I just was opening the book to see it. And I think

it paints to that is, you see for on my beams there was a price, not only, Only a man's death, but a king's sacrifice. He didn't just die on one broken tree. The king came to defeat death to set you free. And how ironic that I, the cross, once a symbol of pain, would now be a symbol of hope in Jesus' name. As if he's coming to realize the transition of what he thought it was and what he's realizing it is. And that transition that we go through so many times of like, well, this is. what I want and you don't even realize, you know, all the things that God is doing. And so I just, but,

but Jason, I really hope that, um, that that was one of the hopes and prayers for it is that a family would be able to buy it for a friend, share it, like give it. Like, hey, they might not, you know, open up Luke and go read it, but maybe they would open this up and have a different perspective. And, uh, maybe families would read it around Easter and maybe they would talk about it. And, um, you know, it's just a different way for maybe Christians to share with their friends of, hey, this is something different and it's rhyming and it's easy to read and it's short and it's, you know, I know you like it because it's a, you know, a colored book. Oh, I love this is, you got out to my level here.

Fifth grade level. Somebody said one time, the Bible was written on the fifth grade level, but what you captured. And Jay says, thank goodness. What you captured, Tim, I don't, I mean, you probably. are aware of this, is there's a big question out there, why did God choose to do it this way? And really, that is the question that came to my mind, because it was from the cross's perspective, but really, it's from God's perspective. Of all that, you know, he didn't choose the social media.

When you look at Jesus's life, he had no money. He had to borrow a coin just to have an illustration. He had no house. He never went over 100 miles in any direction, had no plane. There was no social media. He was born on the wrong side of any kind of hierarchy religious pedigree. And you're like, why don't, why doesn't God do something? People say that.

Look at the world. Well, he has done something. And you got into that question on why he did it this way. And I think it was from the Holy Spirit. and I think it was at a time of your life, like I said, when relationships become very valuable and you feel responsible. We had my daughter-in-law on the podcast last year, and I just couldn't figure out why she had this craving for the study of the Bible.

I mean, she was like sending me text. I'm listening to your podcast and asking me questions. I was like, where's all this coming from? And she said, well, I have three small children. I want to get this right. And I thought, man, isn't that what God's love does? You know, why he created us in our family units and all the brokenness that goes in there. I mean, God wants us to be his family forever.

And so, well done, sir. I'm not easily impressed. No, it's very well done. And, you know, one of the big challenges is when you're trying to teach your kids, this cruciform life, which really you do a great job in the book with kind of the parallel of the tree. And what the tree goes through. And there's like, I think there's a line in there about the bark being stripped off of his back. And so as the tree is like experiencing this, you're like, wait, Jesus is going through this is going to go through this as well.

And so it's like he wants the cross or the tree wants that glorious throne. And then he doesn't get that. But then he, in the end, he realizes, oh, wait, this was the way of love. the whole time. And so it's like the story of Jesus was then translate into us. And I think it's so difficult for us to see as humans that the way of Jesus is the cruciform life. And with my kids, Tim, I have five kids. I know you got one. So I'm five deep now. And we have adopted. The number for grace, baby. Let's go. Let's go. And we adopted Little Ruth about four years ago. And every night, without fail, we have to, when we put her to bed, we say our prayer,

and we brush her teeth, say our prayers. And then we have to read like two to three kids' books. I mean, she will not go to sleep. It's like a, it is part of our liturgy. And what I love about this book, and I can just imagine parents all over the country, all over the world are going to be able to sit down with their three, four, five-year-old kids and read this story to them. And that the imagery, a picture speaks a thousand words,

to sit with our kids to sit in and incubate in these ideas at an early age of understanding one who Jesus is, what he did for us. And now, and then now this is the way to the good life to model what Jesus modeled on the cross. This is how we love one another. I'm excited to read this to her. So I'm really excited for this to come out. And this will be part of our family's nightly routine. That's so sweet.

Thank you. I just want to say I'm really proud of you for a few things. One, your whole nightly routine, but I'm also so grateful for you that you didn't, you don't have this same routine as Jace putting your kids asleep that you actually do brush their teeth. That's great. Diddy knows what a toothbrushes? I'm sure Missy did brush your kids' teeth. Right. So we're almost out of time. I want to say one thing. You mentioned this. Of course she does. Jace definitely did. That's why God gave us a woman, the completion. I guess it's become the all-star during the ice storm. Oh, Jace, with the chainsaw, and then Missy's cleaning up, you know, saying, don't have to do it. So look, I got one last thing to say, Tim, we're almost out of time.

But we, you mentioned something earlier. And it was just, you did it quickly. But me being a pastor for so many years and preaching so many ceremonies. You know, and Joby's been on our podcast before, and we love him, by the way. And he just such a, gift from God. But he was speaking as the Holy Spirit led him. But what he said, he probably had no idea it would affect you the way it did because it wasn't really him. It was the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And the fact that you had ears willing to hear, not just him, but of course the Holy Spirit, who speaks to us some ways, essentially through pastors, that we never even

know how the message gets to where it needs to get. So I'm grateful for men like him, but I'm also grateful for men like you who have an openness to the Holy Spirit. And he's taken a great thought that was implanted into your heart and turn that seed into something. I think it's going to help a lot of people. So we highly recommend the book. This is, here's the deal. I have a philosophy and I focus on Jesus because I realize if people fall in love with Jesus, you're not going to have to go look around and try to find. They will beat your door down trying to learn more. And I highly recommend this book because I think it embodies that.

And you took my first thought about that story in Luke, because when I heard that, see, in my simple mind, I thought, huh, that was the first rock concert. The rocks will cry out as a rock concert. Yeah. Well, we will put the – we'll find the link. I'll get with your team, and we'll make sure we put a link for you guys there to listen if you want to check the book out. I appreciate that.

Look at the show notes. I give me another plug, too. The book you wrote last year, Look Again is very, very good. And I couldn't help but think when I read it and now reading this, that this sort of perspective that God's given you as your seasons go along continue to open you up to him. So thank you, Tim, for everything you do for the kingdom. You're one of our pals and buddies, and even though you're a tiger slayer from Days' lore, we love yours, our brother. Well, I'm so grateful for y'all.

Thank you, guys. Thanks for your love for Jesus and just being unashamed and grateful for the time and the friendship and just honored to be able to come share. And thanks to you for being so authentic in the way that you share the love of Christ with people. Amen. Keep preaching. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving our love.

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