Kevin’s Heart…and yours: an illustration of depravity from National Signing Day

Posted by Erik in Irish Calvinist on Feb 8th, 2008 | 5 responses

This week is a big week for college football. National Signing Day began this past Wednesday. In the last several years signing day has become something of a media circus with many high level players holding a suspense-filled press conference to make their decisions.

Enter Kevin Hart. Kevin is a high school lineman from a small town in Nevada. Hart had been maintaining that he was being recruited by Cal’s Jeff Tedford and Oregon’s Mike Belloti (two primo Pac-10 schools). This was big news for the small town of Fernly, Nevada.

The only problem was neither Tedford nor Belloti were recruiting Hart. He made the whole thing up. Watch the video below…

This is truly sad. But we cannot miss the real-life illustration of the depravity of the human heart and the lengths by which we will go to have our glory, even when the end game is clear.

In the aftermath, many in the media are piling on Hart for his defective plan and the effects of his selfishness upon his family, school and even himself. And to be sure he deserves much of what he is getting for it was a ridiculous move. However, I want to point out that the seed of self-glory and the toil of manipulation that spring from the depraved heart really is all the same. The nature of the human heart is to fantasy about self-glory, plan how to make it happen, and then to manipulate circumstances in order to accomplish this.

We are all susceptible to this type of thing even though many of us have not called a press conference to highlight it. It is fitting that his last name is ‘Hart’ as it should cause us to examine our own and see the inclinations toward the enthronement and exaltation of self. Ask yourself who is the hero of your contemplations and meditations? When your mind goes into neutral and you think about life, do you dwell upon the glory of yourself? Others? Christ?

If you are a Christian this type of video should cause you to praise the Lord Jesus Christ who has sovereignly ripped out your heart of stone and given you a new heart (2 Cor. 5.17). He is working to shape and to mold you into his very image (Rom. 8.29). Through this sanctifying grace you are being less inclined to such fantasies of vain glory and more captivated by divine glory (2 Cor. 3.18). So praise by to God that you have not been left unto yourself, otherwise you may be calling press conferences to showcase your folly. Instead the wonderful Savior has rescued you (Col. 1.13) and the Holy Spirit is now sanctifying you and will fully conform you to the image of Jesus as you are presented before the Father, blameless with great joy (1 Thess 5.23-24; Jude 24).

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5 Responses to “Kevin’s Heart…and yours: an illustration of depravity from National Signing Day”

Barry says:

February 8, 2008 at 1:00 pm

Wow! I had heard about this on the radio but did not know any of the details. It is amazing how much the humam heart can decieve us into doing something like this. If Hart would have logically thought the least bit ahead, he would have known that the lie would catch up with him. But the self glory was too alurring.

Continue to preach the gospel to yourself and pray for a tender and sensitive heart for the ways of the Lord.
Dave D. says:

February 8, 2008 at 7:27 pm

It’s easy to pile on an 18-year-old football player, but I wonder how many pastors are guilty of a similar sin, when at their favorite pastor’s conference they are asked one of the following questions:
“So, what are you running these days?”
“How big was the church when you first got there?”
“How many people came to Christ at your church last year?”
“How many people are on your staff?”
My experience has been that the temptation for self-glory succeeds in direct proportion to how many miles away I am from my church. After all, who will know? My heart “is deceitful and desperately wicked.” I believe a preacher wrote that.
Good post.
wisecarver says:

February 10, 2008 at 8:53 am

Yikes. Regardless of who does this. The illustration stands to serve a good point (as all illustrations should). The pride of life is a strong temptation. For unbelievers as well as true believers. Thanks for the reminder Erik.
Steve says:

February 11, 2008 at 11:21 am

Wow. This is a powerful illustration. Thanks. You are right, we are all vulnerable and guitly.
Jane says:

February 11, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Here’s a somewhat related personal story:

Years ago I produced a radio talk show on a Christian radio station. While I was working there I sent a small donation in to Focus on the Family.

Months later, while I was still at the radio station, someone from Focus on the Family called me at home and left a vague message. I immediately assumed that someone from Focus on the Family had been listening to the show that I produced, discovered my “amazing” talent and wanted to hire me to come work for Dr. Dobson at Focus on the Family in Colorado.
I was wrong. When I returned their call they thanked me for my tiny donation. My husband still teases me about this from time to time.