The hype surrounding the Super Bowl every year seems to have as much to do with the anticipation of new, funny, cutting edge, multi-million dollar television commercials as it does with determining the NFL championship on the field of play.  Conversations among viewers of the Big Game in living rooms across America are intermittently silenced by the shout of, “Quiet!  The commercials are coming on!”  Tens of millions of adherents sit transfixed to their flat screens as the prophets and priests of Consumerism exuberantly (and quite cleverly) proclaim the latest revelations about beer, computers, cars, cell phones, food, and more.

This year, it is an understatement to say that the impact and value of the Super Bowl commercials is being raised exponentially by a 30-second ad that has been produced by Focus on the Family.  It features Tim Tebow, winner of the Heisman Trophy in 2007 and quarterback for the Florida Gators, with whom he won two BCS Championships.  While the text of the commercial has not been released, it is expected that it will recount the story of the decision that Tebow’s mother, Pam, faced as she experienced extreme complications with her pregnancy while serving as a missionary in the Philippines in 1987.  Doctors recommended that she abort the child for the sake of her own health and life.  She didn’t.  On August 14 of that year, she gave birth to her fifth child, Timothy Richard Tebow. 

Thank you, Pam and Tim Tebow, for the openness of your faith, the power of your testimony, and your willingness to share your story.  Thank you, Focus on the Family, for producing this pro-life commercial and for spending the millions of dollars necessary to air it.  Thank you, CBS, for rethinking your policy regarding “advocacy” commercials and for not bowing to the demands of influential political and social groups that the commercial be pulled from the broadcast.  While I know that this will open the door for advocacy ads for causes that I do not support, that is the way it should be in a free society that values free speech and the open exchange of ideas.

It is reported that the word abortion is not explicitly used in the Tebow ad.  It doesn’t need to be.  I deeply appreciate what I anticipate will be the power of the commercial’s approach, message, and tone.  No one is screaming.  No one is pointing fingers.  No one is condemning anyone to hell or calling for ungodly and indefensible violence against clinics and physicians.  Someone (a very well-known and influential someone) is just telling a story: a story of life. 

The battle over abortion will not be won in the halls of Congress, the chambers of the Supreme Court, or in voting booths.  It will be won one heart at a time, one story at a time, one choice at a time.