Last night I turned on the Grammy's. It would be hard for me to say I actually actively "watched" the Grammys. It was more of a blank stare into an alternate universe. It as as if I were watching a world I didn't understand and had never encountered before. As I watched the long string of celebrities walk the red carpet and take the mic of the Staples Center a familiar question came to mind, the same question I had during my high school graduation ceremony. "Who are all of these people?"
Out of a class of six hundred there were, quite naturally, students I had spent twelve years of school with who I had never met. I didn't know half of my peers. As the jumbo screens at the Grammys flashed pictures of recording artists, clips from the latest music videos and montages of the past year's hits I realized I had never seen half of the faces on the screen. The celebrity names and songs sounded as foreign as the French language.
Each live Grammy performance further separated me from the world being displayed on TV. The outfits (or lack-there-of), most of the lyrics and the multi-colored flashing lights assaulted my eyes and ears. As I watched barely-clothed women dance while men sang about the bare female body I felt sick to my stomach. The depravity and immorality parading on stage was worse than a high school full of rebellious teenagers.
As I clicked off my TV screen well before the ceremony came even close to ending my heart began to break for the emptiness of the world I had just witnessed. Every one of those celebrities was created in the image of God, no different than me. They were given gifts and talents and the opportunity to know Christ, just like me. And just like me every guest in attendance was and is a sinner. Just like me.
For many award show seasons I have chosen not to turn on the TV. I haven't wanted to take in the sight of this lost world or hear its depraved music but last night I needed to see it. I've scoffed at celebrity sinners and deemed them a lost cause. Where is the hope for the masses who believe their sin is glorious, fun and worthy of a golden statue?
But last night I was compelled to watch because I needed to see the sin on the screen to be called into prayer action. I needed to be reminded of how very dark sin's pit truly is and how tight its hold on this world. I needed to be reminded that the culture and the precious children of God who play by its rules are perishing with star-studded fanfare and brilliant lights. I had to look upon the demeaning and the demoralizing to remember that Hollywood and its fans are in desperate need of deliverance.
What I learned last night during the Grammys was that I have been complacent in my prayers for the celebrity culture of my generation. I've chosen to ignore the cries for help being belted out on TV screens and radio waves. These people are perishing. They are living for the sins of today and dishonoring the God of eternity. They have traded obedience and morality for corruption, sex and sin. They have given their bodies over to the ways of the flesh and lost their souls.
But it isn't too late. With God there are no hopeless cases. The culture is never too far gone for God to redeem, save and restore. The Grammy stage is not out of God's reach. He can break into the lives of the celebrities parading around to the sounds of sin. God can open the eyes of the lost that have glamorized the human body and mocked the risen body of Christ.
The lost in Hollywood are no more lost than I was before I was saved by Christ. The doomed culture that has a death-grip on this generation is the same culture that once held me in its clutches. But thanks be to God I am not the same as I once was. God broke the chains that bound me to the sin that was slowly and surely destroying me.
And God can do the same for the guests at the Grammys and all the fans watching the spectacle on TV. God can turn their black hearts into beacons of light.
I didn't learn any new song lyrics last night and I couldn't tell you a single winner for a single award but I can tell you this much. I am going to be praying for every guest at the Grammys. In the name of Christ and by the power of His Spirit I am compelled and charged with the duty and obligation to pray for this generation because although it is lost and crumbling in the wake of sins destruction, these people are God's beloved, created by Him and worthy of saving.
May my prayers be frequent and fervent for the perishing, that God would save them quickly and redeem them completely.
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