Get Out of Hell Free!
When pop culture icon, Lady GaGa, decided to keep a diary, she chose to make a very public chronicle of her of her life and career. Weekly posts on YouTube called “GagaVision” (each boasting more than a million views) provide video peeks into her private, backstage, and on stage exploits. GagaVision #41, posted to YouTube in early April 2011, documented her recent encounter with an “evangelical” protester. (Note: we are not posting a direct link to the video. Viewer discretion is advised).
Upon arrival at her concert venue, GaGa had her driver pull up beside a group of protesters so she could introduce herself to them. She was quite civil and friendly, but was (sadly) greeted in return with disrespect and disparaging comments. One protester reached into her window and handed her a card which read, “Get out of hell free!”
The protester then condescendingly snarled, “That’s going to happen one day darlin’,” (ostensibly because of what he then labelled as her “pervert ways” and “homo stuff”).
GaGa countered by saying, “Don’t you think it’s hurtful…,” but before she could finish her sentence he interrupted saying, “It’s in a black book, with gold edges, and a little ribbon.”
Recounting the story in her video journal, GaGa sighed, “It just makes me sad that my fans have to see that.”
For those of us who have personally experienced the loving and gracious way God reached out to us with His message of salvation, “while we were yet sinners,” this is an unsettling story. But as unsettling as it is, it is a newly revealed backstory that really puts the encounter in context.
Two years ago, a man by the name of Tom Hudson came across a picture of Lady GaGa on the cover of a magazine. “When I saw Gaga’s picture, the Lord just said ‘Pray for her... pray that she gets to know Me,” Hudson told THE CHRISTIAN POST.
Tom is an evangelist who has who founded an outreach organization called TollFreeMinistries.com, which produces outreach materials (books, fliers, tracts, etc.). One of the resources he created was the same “Get out of jail free!” card that was handed to Lady GaGa by the insolent protester! He describes the card as a knock-off of the "Get Out of Jail Free" card used in the famed Monopoly™ game. The back simply reads, “Lord Jesus please forgive my sin. Thank you for dying on the cross for me. Please come into my life right now. Be my Lord and Savior. Amen.”
One hundred cards are shipped to anyone who requests them. Donations are requested, but not required. Hudson says he received a particularly large order from the Anaheim, CA, area not long ago. He presumes is was one of the cards from that order that made its way into the hands of Lady GaGa.
The CHRISTIAN POST reports, “We asked the 65-year-old what he thought about the controversy surrounding the encounter between Gaga and the protester, with many angered by the man’s cold and abrupt manner towards the singer. Hudson replied, ‘When I read about Christians being argumentative and judgmental, that’s their flawed response, their bigotry, their prejudice coming out.’ He had four words of advice for those handing out his ‘Get Out of Hell Free Cards’: ‘What would Jesus do?’”
Mr. Hudson was saddened by the contemptuous way the card, created to express God’s love and grace, was misused by the judgmental and disrespectful protester. Such a contra-biblical spirit prompted christiantoday.com editors to question, “So is Lady Gaga’s 'love all, accept all' mantra – which her new album promotes – more closely related to the core message of the Gospel than that of the hateful protester’s?”
While Mr. Hudson created the card, it was Jesus Himself Who created the message. All too often, we misuse the way we hand it out. I must admit, I echo Lady GaGa's sentiment, "I'm just sad her fans had to see that."
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15).
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Sorry I'm Late
An alcoholic friend of famed author and speaker Philip Yancey was once purported to have said:
When I'm late to church, people turn around and stare at me with frowns of disapproval. I get the clear message that I m not as responsible as they are.
But when I'm late to AA, the meeting comes to a halt and everyone jumps up to hug and welcome me. They realize that my lateness may be a sign that I almost didn t make it. When I show up, it proves that my desperate need for them won out over my desperate need for alcohol.
If AA can get this right, shouldn't we, as the Church, all the more get it right?
Let's focus on each other's victories, rather than shaming and guilting each other for our failures (whether real or presumed).
"Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works" and faithfulness, and perseverance, and obedience, and ... (Hebrews 10:24, NLT).
"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" (Ephesians 4:29, ESV).
Put Down the Rope
Most of us are familiar with a bell tower. In order to ring the bell, a rope has to be pulled. For the bell to stop ringing, we must let go of the rope.
Corrie ten Boon, best known for hiding Jews during the Holocaust, was later captured and sentenced to hard labor in various concentration camps. She alone, from her family, survied to tell her story. Time and again she was confronted with her need to forgive those who had so brutually tortured her and her family.
Years later, after hearing a sermon on forgiveness, she often used the imagery of a bell in the tower to recount her own struggle with "letting go."
“'Up in that church tower,' [the pastor] said, nodding out the window, 'is a bell which is rung by pulling on a rope. But you know what? After the sexton lets go of the rope, the bell keeps on swinging. First ding then dong. Slower and slower until there’s a final dong and it stops.'
“I believe the same thing is true of forgiveness. When we forgive someone, we take our hand off the rope. But if we’ve been tugging at our grievances for a long time, we mustn’t be surprised if the old angry thoughts keep coming for a while. They’re just the ding-dongs of the old bell slowing down.” — Corrie Ten Boom, Guideposts Classics, November 1972)
When we choose to forgive, it means we're finally willing to let go of the rope. The ringing may continue, but over the course of time, it will eventually stop, as long as we make the choice to not pick up the rope again.
That said, what area(s) in your life are bringing you to the verge of exhaustion from continuing to ring the bell?
In what situations is God asking you to put down the rope? When are you tempted to pick up the rope again?
As you face your own battle with forgiveness, ask the Lord, as the Apostles did, to increase your faith!
"So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them. The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith!'” (Luke 17:3-4, NIV).
"Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you" (Colossians 3:13, NIV).