Tiger Woods: "I'm the problem" and "I'm the solution"

It has become a routine of mine that on Fridays during lunch time I go to the gym and work out. It is nice because at Reinhardt, we have brand new workout equipment and four big-screen TVs on the wall. Most of the time, I am the only one there so I will turn a few of the TVs on and watch Sportcenter. This past Friday, ESPN was televising Tiger Woods' statement. Here are some observations:

(1) I saw a man who was genuinely trying to save a marriage. He was deeply sorry for his transgressions and desires to repair the damage he has done to his family. It didn't seem to me that this was only to keep face and his "Tiger" brand. He had a genuine, heartfelt "worldly sorrow" for his marriage. On a side note, what I can take from this is how much greater is a godly sorrow and how much more do I need to repent as I have been given a "godly sorrow" which "produces a repentance that leads to salvation" (2 Cor. 7:10).

(2) Although he did not have to, in his statement, he clearly mentions he follows the path of Buddhism. This is what his mother taught him and he followed in his early years of life. Now, I wasn't expecting him to come out and say "I reject Buddhism and now I follow Christ." But, as I listened to him it broke my heart because he clearly showed Buddhism is a self-refuting, self-contradictory system in dealing with "transgressions" and sin. He said, "I want to say to each of you simply and directly i am deeply sorry for my selfish and irresponsible behavior I have been engaged in. People want to know how i could have been so stupid and selfish. " Definitionally, selfishness is an internal problem with you. You are the problem. You are the one who acts stupid and selfish. But, what does Buddhism teach (at least according to Tiger)? He said, "that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security." So, where is his "atonement"? where is his "security"? "I have a lot to atone for" and "I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it." So, you are the problem and you are the solution. You are the one for where the waters come up to your neck. You are the one who is need the deep mire. Your heart is desperately sick. But, your solution is yourself. You are the savior which is no savior at all. Buddhism, which system of thought is derived from monism or pantheism, says all we have is creation, there is no creator, but there is this divine force that fills all creation so that everything is sort of knitted together as one. The solution is this "apparent" divine force you have inside yourself. You are to look within and get in touch with this divine force. But, I thought the problem was selfishness. I thought I was the problem. To look inside myself is stupid. Contrary to this is the Gospel. Tiger said that craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. Oh how this statement cuts any hope for Tiger's true solution: the Gospel. As the problem, we need an external solution. We need someone outside ourselves to save us and atone for us. This is the Gospel of Christ. Christ came into this world. He comes into desperately sick hearts. He is the Savior. The solution is outside ourselves. Look outside to Christ.

Monism, Buddhism and even other religions such as atheism, deism and theism, all have one thing in common which is, God is not the savior. In the others there is no savior. In theism, you’re your own savior. In Christianity, God is the savior. He’s the hero. He’s the rescuer. He’s the redeemer. He’s the hope. I don’t know about you, that sounds like good news to
me. If there is no hope, that’s not good news. If I’m the hope, that’s not good news either. If He’s the hope, well, that’s good news right there.