Kanye West. Over the years there have been reports that Kanye and his family have been going to church. It’s easy enough to believe. It was clear that he had pastors, like Rich Wilkerson Jr., who are to some degree investing in his life. Then April 2019 happened. There were rumors that Kanye got saved and then, on top of that, that he was putting on Sunday Services.
Like so many, I was skeptical.
“This cannot be real,” I thought to myself. “He’s probably just going through something.” “Is he really hearing the gospel?” “Who is calling him out on his sin?” “Is he one of those ‘get out of hell’ Christians or is he really giving his life to follow Jesus?”
Like so many, I was skeptical, and, to be honest, I was cynical. The seed of skepticism, watered by a world of insincerity and mistrust, had given strength to the roots of cynicism that lodged deep into the soil of my heart.
I was driving my Ford Fusion down i5, and so quietly I heard the question, “Christian, didn’t I get you?”. “What?” I thought. “Christian, didn’t I get you” the Holy Spirit replied back to me. Ain’t it funny how God repeats Himself? As I drove down the freeway God began to speak to me.
“Couldn’t Kanye really be following me?”
“Sure. I mean yes, right? I mean anyone can be saved.” My lips theologically professed this truth but my heart was far from believing it. Well, believing it specially about Kanye, because... well... he’s KANYE. And that’s where God began to expose lies that I believe about following Jesus.
I didn’t really believe that God got Kanye. Why? Because somewhere in my heart I still believed that people get God and not that God gets people. If being a Christian is about people getting to God than Kanye has a lot of work to do and a long way to go. But Christianity is actually about God getting people, which means that God can show up right where Kanye is the same way that God got you me, right where I was (even if I forgot it).
I didn’t really believe that God got Kanye. Why? Because somewhere in my heart I still believed that Kanye was worse than me. Sure, Kanye’s list of (public) sin was longer than mine (at least in my awareness and opinion). It’s easy to think that Christianity is about repenting of our bad deeds. It is. And it is also about repenting of our good deeds too. It’s called self-righteousness. One thing that makes Jesus so controversial is that He calls out people for doing good things for the wrong reasons. Jesus knows the human heart, and He is more honest about it than I am.
Sure maybe I don’t sleep around and have tons of sex, but I am envious of others who fit society’s standards of sexy and can sleep around. Sure maybe I don’t murder, but I get mad easily when people hurt me and in my heart wish they weren’t around me (sounds like murder). Sure maybe I am generous to others but it is because I want to be known as generous, not because I trust that God is generous and therefore I don’t have to hold on to things.
Jesus knows that we do good things for the wrong reasons. I do, and you do too. That makes me just as guilty before as Kanye is. Maybe I can convince myself that I’m not that bad when compared to Kanye, but when compared to Jesus (who really is my only standard) I am like a candle next to the sun.
I didn’t really believe that God got Kanye. Why? Because somewhere in my heart I forgot that God got me. I forgot the gospel, and the seeds of self-righteousness that were subtly planted in the night became apparent. They germinated into skepticism and began to grow roots of cynicism. Thankfully, God is a vine dresser and He prunes away things that are unhealthy. This time, he used Kanye to prune me, a sentence I thought I would never say.