Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A person asks for something and then immediately complains when they get it. It’s not exactly what we meant or precisely what we thought it would look like.
We won’t necessarily return it, but we’re not going to celebrate it. It’s a common party trick and it doesn’t just happen with toddlers.
It’s Going To Look Like I’m Changing The Subject
I was included recently in a discussion about worship music. The conversation was on social media, because that’s where most people are level-headed and reasonable.
The author of the article was waxing eloquent about which worship music songs could be sung in church with a clean conscience. Whereas I would normally assume songs are selected by how repeatable the bridge is, this author was breaking down the worthiness of songs based on who had authored them.
Sure, he was paying attention to lyrics, but if he believed lyrics could be taken one of two ways, and one of those ways could even be misconstrued as heretical, then he assumed heresy. Why would anyone do that, you ask? Based on the church they were a part of, of course.
Listen, I understand words matter. I believe doctrine is important. And history can be an indicator of future actions. But not always.
Did You Hear About This Kanye Fellow?
This past week, there has been some sporadic coverage over a mildly popular artist professing faith in Jesus. Maybe you’ve heard about Kanye and even listened to his new album titled Jesus is King.
Unlike the many who have already debated whether or not another person could have claimed allegiance to an invisible God using their unseen faith, I will question what it is in the rest of us that is suddenly equipped to judge these matters accurately.
It’s interesting because, as a Church, our top priority is evangelism. We spend lots of time asking God to give us a harvest. We say it’s what we desire, to see people come to know Jesus.
But when someone does come to claim Jesus as Lord and Savior, we spend more time debating if it was real than we do praising God that someone who was wayward has experienced salvation.
Redemption Is Still A Thing, Right?
People do change. Their actions, their beliefs. We all know this to be true, especially when we consider that we would not want to be held accountable forever for that one thing we believed, or said, or did, back when we were clearly not as intelligent as we are now.
If we’re going to allow for ourselves to grow, understanding we can sometimes be right, even while we are sometimes wrong, it would be decent of us to offer others the same courtesy. I think this applies to Christians writing worship music.
Even if that Christian happens to be Kanye.
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