The Gospel as Told by Taylor Swift

Let me preface this article with an important announcement: I am a Taylor Swift fan! Like many newcomers to the world of T. Swift fandom, I did not care much for her music until the release of Red a few years ago. When I first heard that siren's call in the form of Trouble's uncannily catchy melody line, I recognized that this girl was a genius. What her lyrics may lack in poetic elegance, she makes up for with flashiness and relatability. The girl's got style.

Even though I really did love several of the tracks on Red, I kept quiet about it out of fear. At the time, it wasn't cool to be a college-aged male and a fan of Taylor Swift. All of that changed, of course, with the release of 1989. 

Swift's venture into a new genre may have started with Red, but it culminated in her latest full-length studio release. Red was her cocoon, if you will, but in 1989, she emerged a butterfly with a new look, a new sound, and a new attitude to boot. I don't think it a stretch to say that every song on the record is catchy. This album is like a Hostess snack cake for my soul. When my ears want to binge on something that goes down easy but won't do much to change the way I think about the world, I listen to 1989.

Once she made the official switch, thousands of previously non-fans or closeted fans (like myself) came out of the woodwork, unable to live with the lie that we didn't love this pop princess. 

The Swift Shift 

As I was listening to her new album in my car several months ago, the back of my mind started entertaining the general idea for this article. At that time, I had been listening to Taylor Swift's new record almost daily since its release. But in this particular instance, listening made me curious. I asked myself this question: why has the world gone crazy over this? Even though 1989 really is a great record, it seemed to do more than what good records usually do. It started a media revolution of sorts. People went nuts for this album. What was so attractive about it that album sales skyrocketed so quickly? 

While good songwriting and marketing genius definitely share the blame for much of Taylor's success, I think there is something more. Taylor, unlike many huge acts before her, successfully accomplished an artistic metamorphosis. And with the change in her music came a change in her whole presentation. She reinvented herself, and people are eating it up. 

Swift's transformation sends a message that this generation desperately wants to hear: reinventing oneself is possible and can be positive. In a world of dead dreams, shattered families, and broken hearts, the psyche of many young adults and adolescents is wired to be cynical, pessimistic, and doubtful about change. When life puts people down hard enough times, they are less inclined to believe it can do anything else. 

I realized that the "Swift Shift," as I call it, is indirectly preaching a Gospel message. "The old has passed away; behold the new has come." (II Corinthians 5:17) People don't just want catchy melodies and witty lyrics; people want resurrection! People want to believe that life doesn't have to be an endless cycle of the same mistakes, but that they can, indeed, watch an old life die and a new life take shape. 

Through the Red 

I also find it interesting that the symbolism in Swift's album titles lines up so closely with the imagery of the Bible. Taylor Swift's journey to complete musical transformation started with Red. Through Red came a new musical life for this singer. Through the red blood of Christ, new life can come for all those who seek a fresh start. Ephesians 1:7 says, "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace" (emphasis added). We when we emerge, having been washed clean through the sacrifice of Christ, new life is ours. Our habits can change; our minds can change; our words can change; our relationships can change. 

Taylor probably didn't know she was inadvertently preaching the truth of the Gospel, but God's creation will testify to His glorious works, whether it knows it or not. If you want life to change for you; if you want to stop making the same mistakes and living through the same brokenness, Christ offers you that opportunity. After Taylor's reinvention of herself through Red, she entitled her follow-up record, 1989, after her birth year. Christ offers you a new birth year as well. This birth is into the family of God. So, take the journey to a new self, a new birth. You'll emerge as something beautiful when you pass through the red.

A Little Advice About Giving Advice

When I reflect on times I have offered advice to various friends and family members, I often think, “Gosh, if I had known then what I know now, I could have done much better by that person.” Especially on the occasions when people weren’t as receptive as I would have liked or I just screwed up and counseled them into failure, it would have been nice to have the knowledge and experience then that I have now. So it is with life; most of us learn too many things the hard way and tend to think we know a lot more than we do at any given point in life.

Learning to accept God’s will for my life has been easy enough as He has continued proving to me that His intentions are for my ultimate good, that He would keep me whole and taken care of through the toughest of trials, and that each difficulty He allows me to walk through will be instrumental for my personal growth. Learning to accept that He can and will do the same for the people I care about—now that has been a challenge. I can fall flat on my face and recover well enough, but it is a different wound entirely to watch people I care about fail miserably—a heart wound. Watching them hurt is torture to me, and if I feel like I can prevent that pain, it is in my previously mentioned control freak nature to try.

So, is it wrong to give advice? No. In fact Psalms 37:30 says, “The godly offer good counsel; they know what is right from wrong.” And Proverbs 1:5 says, “Let those with understanding receive guidance.” The Scriptures encourage us to be both givers and receivers of wise counsel. This post, however, will focus on the giving side. So, without further ado, here are some helpful tips I’ve learned over the years of giving both good and bad advice.

1. Never talk down to someone.

No matter how immature or unwise the words and actions of the person you are attempting to advise, do not treat them like they are stupid, inept, or unimportant. Remember that God loves this person, and it is His will for you to be a voice that encourages and builds up (even if it comes through the bestowing of a difficult truth). Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (emphasis added). Correction must come in a way that is loving and gentle. Seek to bring out the best in this person, not highlight the worst. Essentially, think about the way God corrects you, and emulate that.

2. Don’t assume that a person’s growth process should look exactly like yours.

The hard truth is that people—even the ones we love the most—have free will, personal views, and stages of growth just like we do. As much as we may wish we could wave a finger and somehow bring those people to personal and spiritual maturity neatly and painlessly, we cannot. It is God’s desire for them to go through the process, just like it is His desire for us to go through the process. Each person is different, with a different, God-directed route toward maturity. While I believe God has given us each other for counsel, encouragement, love, and all of the other wonderful gifts of social support, ultimately each person’s path is his or her own. And it is and must remain God-directed, not man-directed.

Make no room for the comparison game. The methods God will use to teach and get His point across to each person will be different, while His principles will remain the same. Do your best to keep your advice specific to the situation. Avoid random tangents about this person’s personality or character traits you find to be problematic. If he or she came to you for advice about something, it doesn’t mean you now have a free pass to nitpick. It is God’s job to judge people holistically and help them become who they are supposed to be. He was satisfied with making only one of you. So, focus on helping this person become more like Him, not more like you.

3. You must obtain wisdom before you can dispense wisdom.

Everything you say should be aligned with the Word of God. If not, don’t say it. James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously without reproach, and it will be given him.” If you want to be the kind of person with wisdom to give others, you should start by frequently obtaining wisdom from the Source.

Don’t think so highly of yourself that you start trying to fly solo in giving advice. According to I Corinthians 3:19, “…the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.” Without God’s Word, we are misguided on our best day. So, never leave home without God’s Word written on your heart. You never know when it will come time to be a mouthpiece of His Word to others.

4. Less is more.

One thing I have discovered about giving advice is that I spend more time wishing I had kept my mouth shut than congratulating myself for wise words well spoken. Honestly, people usually just need someone to listen.

The very nature of specific advice is that it is responsive. To give a solution, you must first be presented with a problem. If I walked into a doctor’s office, and he simply wrote me a prescription without even examining me, I’d question the legitimacy of his medical license. When you blurt out a million words of advice without even taking the time to hear what the problem is, the likelihood of that advice being relevant is slim. While the likelihood of that person thinking you are insensitive and maybe even crazy will only increase.

Scenarios like this occur more often than one might think. When you know someone and have a general idea of the lifestyle he or she lives, it becomes easy to assume what you need to say without taking the time to really listen. Don’t fall into the trap of giving irrelevant advice that might even be good, but will ultimately be discarded because the person is not ready to receive it. Only work on the problem presented, and if you do have something to say, keep it short enough that the conversation can remain a healthy dialogue, not a preachy monologue.

5. God can be trusted. Leave them in His hands.

Even if you have been an attentive and sensitive listener, you may not have a wealth of knowledge about how to fix the problem. That is OKAY! Do not feel defeated. You are not failing someone when you don’t know how to fix everything. You are presenting this person with an opportunity to trust God in a deeper way. In the meantime, love well. Be a shoulder to cry on. Be a sounding board. Be a voice of truth and encouragement.

No matter how deeply your love for this person may run, God’s love for him or her is literally infinitely deeper than yours. He wants the best for all of His children. When the people we love are making destructive decisions, it is easy to start believing they will never come around. We are limited by our small and temporal perspectives, but God has eternal perspective and sees how even the destructive decisions can lead to the ultimate good of each person. So, if they are not responding to you, trust that God will do whatever it takes to reach them. Chasing after the unreachable is in His very nature. It is one of the most beautiful aspects of His grace.

Finally…

Prayer. Prayer before giving advice, prayer during the process, and prayer for continuous direction afterward is always the best bet. God is the perfect advisor because He already knows the beginning from the end. You cannot go wrong, seeking Him. The best advice starts when are connected with God in prayer and ends when that connection is broken. My advice? Don’t ever break that connection.

Where is the Love in Science and Faith?

Cats, Dogs, and the Scientific Method

Why is it that in our quest to discover the "right way" to perceive God, our gaze so often shifts to the differences we see in others? When we ask questions about God, why do our answers often end up being about people? In essence, we try to satisfy questions we have about God by pointing out the problems in other people. "I may not know the answer for sure, but you're definitely wrong," is the mentality we tend to take toward controversial religious topics. 

Let me clarify, if I want to know all about a specific type of dog, I'm not going spend all my time arguing with cats about the nature of dogs. That would be ludicrous. If I want to know about dogs, I’m going to have to focus on dogs. 

The same is true of God. If I want to know about God, I’ll have to focus on God, not on the ways other people think differently about Him. Theology, like geology or biology, is a science—the science of God. And science revolves around things that can be tested. Interestingly enough, Scripture says, “You must not test the Lord your God” (Luke 4:12)

The Scientific Method dictates that I should ask a question, observe the subject, form a hypothesis, perform an experiment to test my hypothesis, and then draw conclusions. Can this be done to God? We can certainly ask questions, but the Scientific Method fizzles out from there. We cannot observe God Himself. Scripture indicates that to see God with our eyes would actually kill us. Scripture also tells us, however, that we are without excuse for not believing in God because the things we can see put God’s attributes on display. “Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature” (Romans 1:20)

Scripture warns about the consequences of literally observing God. Scripture itself provides us with all the description of God we need, thus hypothesizing is futile. Scripture forbids us from testing God. And Scripture has already made the necessary conclusions about God through Jesus Christ revealing Him perfectly. It sounds to me as if God is not even remotely interested in being subjected to the Scientific Method.

God is not even remotely interested in being subjected to the Scientific Method.

So, if we can’t see God and we can’t test God, how should theology (a science) be developed? The answer is simple: Scripture. Scripture is what the intellectuals refer to as Special Revelation or Specific Revelation. Scripture, along with nature and the human conscience (General Revelation) is what God has revealed to us about Himself, and it can be questioned, observed, hypothesized about, put to the test, and concluded about.

It seems to me that God has purposefully set up two types of knowledge as it pertains to Him: 1. Knowing about Him, and 2. Knowing Him. As we established, God is not interested in having us treat Him like a dissected animal in biology class. He does, however, delight when we pick apart all the living wisdom residing in the body of His Word. God absolutely wants us to learn about Him, and the Word is foundational to that process. But God also wants us to get to know Him, and while Scripture is also integral to this process, it is not designed to replace a relationship with God, the person.

God seeks for us to know Him personally. This involves many things: talking to Him, listening to Him, spending quality time with Him, learning from Him, honoring Him with our talents, and a host of other things we would do with and for any person we claim to love. I honestly believe God is hurt when the extent of our “relationship” with him is achieved through the Scientific Method. He isn’t a textbook to be studied; He is a person to be known and loved. And like many people, He isn’t as predictable as we would like to believe.

When Theology Becomes Idolatry

I also think we can create an idol out of theology. Our pride abounds when we think we understand God better than others do. That’s not worshipping a God we know personally; that is worshipping ourselves by parading our intellect. This idolatry causes two terrible evils that contradict the Greatest Commandment: 1. It divides us from God the person by exalting God the concept and 2. It divides us from God's people, which is equally detestable to God. According to the words of Jesus, to be divided is to be disobedient.

To be divided is to be disobedient.

What is God’s purpose for us? Jesus spells it out as clearly as possible in John 17:21 “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one…” God wants us to be unified with Him and with each other. When unity is not our number one priority, we are scoffing at the work of the cross. When we elevate our individual understanding of God above our desire to be one with Him and with each other, we are no longer aligned with Christ’s purposes and His perfect methods for achieving them.

If our goal is to spread the Gospel, then our greatest tool is unity. “May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.” (John 17:23) Thinking we know all about God will always divide us, but knowing God will always unite us. When we are united the Gospel is spread, the Fruit of the Spirit is grown, and the focus is taken off of us and put back where it belongs—on God.

The “My Way or the Highway” mentality will always keep the Gospel out of the highways and hedges.

Laundry Lessons

An Inspiring Story About Socks 

This morning, while preparing for a run, I was rummaging around in a small pile of clothes for the companion to one of my favorite athletic socks. I held its counterpart in my right hand and a small bundle of clothes I had hastily grabbed to move out of the way in my left hand, all while shuffling other clothes in the large pile around with my tightened fist. Finally, after about two minutes of searching, I gave up, assuming that the sock was still in the wash with another load of laundry. But, when I laid down the bundle of clothes I was holding, I discovered that the twin sock had been nestled in that tiny heap the entire time.

I know this story was incredibly gripping and moved you to reevaluate the entire course of your life. I promise, it really does have a point.

Sometimes, we spend our lives searching for the very thing that we already hold in our possession. The “grass is always greener” is a concept infecting the thoughts of many. We are blessed with so much, and yet we keep searching. I think this happens for a lot of reasons, but here are two that I see often (and relate directly to my exciting sock story).

1. We forget how precious each blessing is.

The truth of the matter is that it is human nature to underappreciate. Entitlement is a disease infecting us all, and the strongest strain of that disease is most definitely in America, the land of abundance. Whether it’s material possessions, family, basic human rights, or even faith, so many begin to look at these things as if they are owed to us, when in reality they are gracious gifts of God. In the midst of this faulty assumption, we find these blessings growing ever more dull and often fail to see their value any longer.

How sad when we complain about not having enough, when we hurt our families because we forget how intrinsically precious they are, when we take for granted the rights men and women have given their very lives to protect, when we treat God like a vending machine instead of our closest and truest Friend all because we fail to assign proper value to these things. 

2. We let these blessings get buried under piles of life.

Like my favorite sock, blessings can be hidden under piles of unnecessary clutter. Sometimes, we get so bogged down with work, school, programs, church events, destructive relationships, etc. that we lose sight of the most important things in life. When our souls come up empty, we head over to the “laundry pile” of our lives to try to find the satisfying element. The saddest moment is when we realize that it had been at our fingertips the whole time, completely accessible to us, and buried under mounds of the unimportant and unnecessary. If we refuse to let the useless junk go, we will find ourselves continually miserable, and we might just lose those underappreciated gifts (especially if those gifts are people).  

A Good Long Look

I encourage you—if you are searching for something today, take inventory of the life you have before setting out to add to it. If you take a good long look at what already fills your hands, you might find that you had what you were looking for the whole time.

Politics, Explosions, America, Christians, Ebola, and Sheldon Cooper: This Should Be Fun

Starbucks

As I sat with my family around the table at Starbucks a few nights ago, we spoke on the subject of America, which led to the subject of politics, which led to the subject of war, which led to the subject of nuclear explosions and the seemingly subjective morality surrounding weapons of such magnificent power and brutal repercussions. As we began to "solve the world's problems" together, I came on rather forcefully when I said, "This is all stupid."

As a child, I tended toward the typical conservative “bomb everything, close the borders, and poor people should get a job” viewpoints that lace the psyches of so many Conservative Christians. I adhered to those beliefs because they were popular in my circles. However, I don't feel the same way about many of the things I believed as a child. I made the choices to develop into my own man and reorganize my beliefs accordingly. 

Now, before dismissing this post as a political commentary, please read on because it is not my intention to create more division in a world that is already more divided Sheldon Cooper’s sixth grade science binder.

If you live in America, then you know that these political topics are more contagious than Ebola. Most likely, everybody reading this post has already given them plenty of thought (and probably force-fed several others a hearty spoonful of their opinions). My goal here is to cultivate some thought about priorities.

The Unseen Division of Distance

It’s so easy for humans to disassociate the faces, names, and intricate lives of their same-species counterparts based on a factor so trivial as distance. We are divided physically by distance, but it also divides us mentally, emotionally, and, often times, spiritually. It causes us to trivialize important things, idealize terrible things, and euphemize awkward things.  

Since it’s already been mentioned, let’s just use the Ebola scare as an example: why didn’t people in America blow up Facebook with news about Ebola or any other pathogen claiming the lives of hundreds or thousands before it threatened Americans? That terrible disease has been wiping out droves of people in Africa for years, but those people are far away.

Because most of us aren’t faced with the harsh reality of substandard hospitals and rampant spread of lethal illnesses, we don’t really give much thought to what that is like. Kind of like when we aren’t having bombs diminishing us to ash or chlorine gas suffocating us, we don’t give much thought to the men, women, and children this is happening or has been happening to in many volatile middle eastern nations. Distance is the murderer of empathy.

The Part About Christians and America

I won’t pose an ethical question like: is it justified to bomb nations filled with innocent people because there are guilty people hiding behind the numbers of innocent? But, I will ask this question, why aren’t Christians wrestling with questions like that and coming to honest, biblical conclusions? Those conclusions will ultimately define our convictions. When we are talking about something, anything—pathogenic, explosive, oppressive, violent, unjust etc.—compromising the lives and wellbeing of unsaved people, shouldn’t our first response be, “No! I will do anything and everything in my power to make sure these people hear the Gospel before it is too late,” or is there another option?

Recently, someone important to me made the difficult decision to walk out of my life—at least most practical aspects of my life. But, I decided that I would not allow this person to make such a decision without being positively certain that they had considered completely all the ramifications of their actions. I wanted to be sure that there was no doubt as to the seriousness of the situation, so I sent a few messages outlining every possible contingency I could think of and made sure that the person was informed and understood where I was coming from. I didn’t want that person to make the wrong decision out of ignorance.

Now, that person still made the choice to be distanced from me, and that’s okay because my conscience is clear. They knew how I felt and did not walk away uninformed. I’m at peace because of my certainty that I have done everything I can. I’ve left everything else in God’s hands and handled it only in prayer.

This principle should apply to the infinite power with something as fundamentally important to human lives as eternal salvation. People have the right to know about Jesus, and that supernatural right trumps our American rights to determine who gets blown up, or told to leave the country, or whatever else we like to fight about. If vast distances and a desire to live “safe lives” prevent us from loving and opening our hearts to people everywhere, then we have truly missed the point of our purpose on this earth. The only reason Christians are even still here is to be the hands and feet of Christ!

Conclusion

Should we make American borders airtight? I don’t know, and I won’t attempt to argue that question with you. But why are so many American Christians more concerned with the closing of American borders than they are with the openness of Jesus’ arms? Why are they more concerned about being temporarily safe in America than the lost being eternally saved in Heaven? When did our politics become intermingled with our piety?

I don’t know if it’s right or wrong to blow up a nation full of people (my gut says it’s wrong), but I do have serious problem with a nation full of people never getting the chance to hear about Jesus before some trigger-happy politician melts the skin off their bones with the touch of a button. I don’t know if it’s right or wrong to close American borders to the outside world, but I do know that Christians better be penetrating the borders of every nation with the truth of the Gospel and that we must retain open hearts. I don’t know if the government should be feeding poor people, but I know the Church has no excuse to not be feeding them.

When did our comfort become more valuable to us than our calling? Why are we more concerned with making arguments than with making disciples? These are the questions that should be driving us to our knees with conviction and keeping us awake at night. It’s time the Gospel takes precedence over government, that sacrificial love replaces sentimental legalism, and that spiritual leadership replaces “sanctified” lethargy. It’s time that we stop trying to save people’s souls with the word of the Constitution and start seeing them saved by the Word of God. It’s time that we close the gaps of unseen distance in our hearts, minds, prayers, and actions so that we can ultimately close the distance between heaven and hell for those who are lost.