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The Truett brothers Dave (Evan Hofer), left, and Zach (Tanner Stine) run football drills in the movie “Run The Race,” which opens in theaters on Feb. 22, 2019.​ Photo courtesy of RTR Movie Holdings, LLC.

Tim Tebow, the Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL quarterback now readying for his fourth season as a minor-league baseball player, knows that being a good Christian doesn’t solve everything.

Even watching Christian movies growing up, Tebow had his doubts when the main character started praying and suddenly everything “was just perfect.”

“That’s not real life,” he said. “Life’s not easy.”

As executive producers of the new film “Run the Race,” Tebow and his brother Robby wanted to create the kind of movie — and Christian life — he longed to see instead: one that’s not perfect, but authentic.

“Run the Race,” the story of two high school brothers trying to overcome their mother’s death and father’s abandonment, sticks close to the power of fraternal love and sports. Zach Truett, played by Tanner Stine, is working to earn a college football scholarship, but after he suffers an injury, he worries he’ll never find his way out of his small town.

Not wanting to give up on their dream, his brother, Dave, attempts to save both brothers’ futures by securing his own scholarship in track.

The characters, especially Zach, also spend a lot of time grappling with and asking questions about their faith — questions many of those involved in the movie, including real-life Christians Stine and Tebow, have asked themselves.

“We all go through our own faith journey. You ask the questions and you ask the why,” Tebow told Religion News Service. “Even in your lows, God loves you and he’s chasing you and he wants to know you and support you and he gave his best for you.”

Jake McEntire, who wrote the original script, was in one of those lows. By that time he had been working on the screenplay for almost a decade. “I remember being in class in 2004, just freehand writing this stuff,” said McEntire.

He rewrote it multiple times over the years, then made a “concept” trailer hoping it’d attract more people to the project. McEntire said there were multiple times he’d pray, asking God if he should give up or if God wanted him to keep going.

The official poster for “Run the Race.” Courtesy of RTR Movie Holdings, LLC.

“I just felt like this was a calling God gave me in my heart to go tell this story,” he said.

It was on one of those days of praying and questioning whether to continue that the Tebows called, he said.

Trey Brunson, who met McEntire in college in Dallas, got to know Robby Tebow as a pastor in Florida. Six years ago Brunson, now an executive producer himself, showed the trailer to Robby, who showed it to Tim. The Tebow brothers then asked to read the full script.

It was reading the script, Tim Tebow said, that was his impetus to get into the movie industry. A popular public speaker, he said the power of McEntire’s storytelling impressed on him how limited his appearances were compared with the movies.

“It’s just another avenue to encourage people,” said Tebow, who has been supporting the movie with press and on social media. “Why not use that avenue for good, too?”

Though McEntire now had Tebow to ask about achieving in sports, the writer said that much of the film is drawn on his own sports experience.

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Source: Religion News Service