Culture

Grace, Forgiveness, and Kanye West?

Like everyone, Monday morning I was watching a video of my beloved Kanye West, storming the stage of Taylor Swift’s VMA acceptance speech. I am a fan of Kanye West, I love his music and music that he has produced. In the past I have seen him pull stunts like this, apologize, and then do something equally as stupid, which I have always just written off as rockstar bullshit. I’m not the kind of person that lets a rockstar’s persona ruin their music. Most of the time I just understand that it’s a necessary evil.

But Monday, I was filled with disgust. “Man, he really crossed the line this time,” I said to myself, “what a 3rd grader.” Obama may have said it best—what a jackass.

Of course he apologized in all-caps on his blog. Of course I didn’t really believe it. Oh well. Until next time, Kanye. Later that night, I saw him on the new Jay Leno show. I saw the shameful look in his eye as Jay probed him on his thought process, and worse, what his mom would have thought if she had still been alive. Instantly I was filled with…compassion? Compassion for this 3rd grader? Grace for this jackass?

“I’ll take that,” I found myself saying aloud to my wife.

God’s grace just dawned on me. For the 23,543,589,432th time. I couldn’t stop thinking about it the entire next day. I tend to forget about this kind of grace. This kind of grace that knows that someone will probably screw up again, probably apologize again, and repeat the whole process. This kind of grace that knows that the slate is wiped clean every time. Who’s to say that, just because Kanye West is a multi-millionaire rockstar producer, he is incapable of experiencing grace and forgiveness from not only me, but from the Father as well? I’m hoping this time Kanye sees it and runs after it. Even if he doesn’t, it’ll still be there next time.

I know this all seems kind of silly and over-played, but it’s just something I’ve been reflecting on the last couple of days. It’s nice to be reminded of the simple things that got me here in the first place.

By Collin | Also posted in The Classics | Comments (3)

Open Wide Your Hearts

Maybe I’m writing this because I am still on a high from my small group a couple days ago—or maybe because my pastor has been preaching on it for the last three weeks—but I think it’s high time that we all start ripping our hearts open. 

I have been reflecting on how easy it is as a culture to close ourselves off. I think we can easily go through life having nothing but superficial conversation. How easy is it for someone to see someone they might even be close to and having  ”hey, how are you? Fine. How are you? Fine.” kind of conversation? In turn, we end up bottling up the smallest—all the way to the biggest things. 

Two nights ago, twelve of us spent nearly three hours encouraging each other. We literally went around the room one by one, and just told each person how we felt about them, just to make them feel good. You could feel the warmth in the room. It was an amazing feeling, being blessed and blessing others. To see tears flow and to see eyes light up, and to see people really get in touch with their true identities is incredible. 

This doesn’t just apply to encouragement though. It also applies to other things, like confession. This is a hard one. I mean, it’s our nature as humankind to not tell people things. Even people we trust. As children, when you are doing something wrong, and you get called out on it, what do you do? Lie about it? Check. Run and hide because you know you are guilty? Check. Blame someone else? Check. From our childhood, we are ingrained with this type of mentality. If you are doing something that goes against what you believe at your very core (or what you were taught to believe), you don’t tell anyone about it. Because then you might be embarrassed, or get into trouble.

Or maybe someone might think a little less of you. 

The thing we don’t see, from that early age on into adult life, is that if we DO just come out with it, with what we did—or who we are—the understanding usually flows like a river. At least the consequences aren’t as high.

If I told my mom that I was doing “X”, maybe my punishment would be “y” instead of “Y”.

If I told my best friend that I am struggling with “X”, maybe my heart will be healed in “y”-time instead of “Y”-time. 

Dustin Kensrue of Thrice said it best in my opinion: “But until then all of our scars will still remain, but we’ve learned that if we’ll open the wounds and share them then soon they start to heal. As long as we live, every scar is a bridge to someone’s broken heart, and there’s no greater love than that one shed his blood for his friends.”

Let’s do this together. Let’s open wide our hearts. Let’s be a little more vulnerable, even if it stings a bit.

By Collin | Also posted in Oh you know... | Comments (3)