When one hears the name Justin Bieber, it may come with lyrics of his first number one hit, "What Do You Mean," (the acoustic version is my fave), but maybe his name comes with some mixed ideas and emotions about him or his life. First he was an adorable, innocent kid, then he did some things he wasn't supposed to do, and now, according to a recent interview with Complex, he's a Christian.
What do I mean? Yeah, he did some things he wasn't supposed to do -- add him to the list, right behind me. And, yes, Bieber is an open Christian and has shared that he loves talking about his faith. Similarly, when one hears the word, "Christian," some of this same skepticism may flood the minds of some individuals. First, you love God and now you are shoving it down my throat and telling me that I'm going to hell for doing something wrong. What do I mean? Yeah, regardless of our morals or our beliefs, there are always those who come on too strong or don't know how to communicate those ideals to others. Sometimes, those ideas are different or unexpected but that doesn't make them wrong -- it's the game of life -- everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that's what makes us so great.
Religion and Justin Bieber are touchy topics, and often don't find themselves paired together, but since we are all the open-minded and inclusive people we want to be, why not? It's about time someone like Justin Bieber opens up about his faith and what it means to him.
So, now, regardless of what you think about the one and only Justin Bieber, imagine you're a Christian. You believe Jesus died for our sins, to offer a way out of the brokenness that our stupid selves keep leading us into. You become famous and everything is great. Then you do somethings you may regret. The world turns on you and says you aren't worthy or thankful, you don't deserve the success. The media follows every single move you make and molds it into what they want it to look like.
What do you mean? I mean you are driving your car too fast and blow a 0.01, your dad comes to check on you after you get pulled over and you're drunk, drag racing with your dad. Maybe something that drastic hasn't happened to you, but just imagine what would pop up on that media headline if a camera followed you everywhere you went. Does that mean he's not a Christian anymore? No. Does that mean it's too late? No. Does that mean he's the only one who makes mistakes? No. Is this all what we should really be talking about?
Guys, we have an amazing, all-powerful, indescribable, uncontainable, untamable God who works wonders in peoples lives. He loves us. No matter what you know or how you feel about Him, He is always there. These negative things in the media that expose the mishaps of other people only breathe fire to more negativity. If you are a Christian and your flaws were exposed for all to see, where would you go? What would you do? I'm not sure about you, but I'm with Justin Bieber on this one. Bieber turned to God and turned to sharing it with the world. Just Bieber got it right y'all- and this is what we need to be talking about. Check out some of the highlights from the Complex Interview below:
"Science makes a lot of sense. Then I start thinking—wait, the ‘big bang.’ For a ‘big bang’ to create all this is more wild to think about than thinking about there being a God. Imagine putting a bunch of gold into a box, shaking up the box, and out comes a Rolex. It’s so preposterous once people start saying it. At this point, my faith has gotten me to where I am. My faith has brought me to a whole other level. I love talking about my faith. I think that with Christians, they’ve left such a bad taste in people’s mouths. Just like, overly pushy with the subject, overly churchy and religious.”
“There’s a lot of really weird stuff going on at churches. You ever flicked on a channel and a late-night church show is on? Sometimes it’s like, ‘You better do this or you gon’ die and you gon’ burn in hell!’ And you’re like, I don’t want anything to do with this. I’m the same way. I’m not religious. I, personally, love Jesus and that was my salvation. I want to share what I’m going through and what I’m feeling and I think it shouldn’t be ostracized.”
“I think that people, as soon as they start hearing me saying I’m a Christian, they’re like, ‘Whoa Justin, back up, take a step back.’ Also, I do not want to shove this down anyone’s throat. I just wanna honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus—I could never—I don’t want that to come across weird. He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind. If you believe it, he died for our sins. Sometimes when I don’t feel like doing something, but I know it’s right, I remember, I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t feel like going to the cross and dying so that we don’t have to feel what we should have to feel. What Jesus did when he came to the cross was basically say, ‘You don’t have to feel any of that stuff.’ We could take out all of our insecurities, we could take away all of the hurt, all the pain, all the fear, all the trauma. That doesn’t need to be there. So all this healing that you’re trying to do, it’s unnecessary. We have the greatest healer of all and his name is Jesus Christ. And he really heals. This is it. It’s time that we all share our voice. Whatever you believe. Share it. I’m at a point where I’m not going to hold this in.”
“It’s like with God: The whole thing with religion is you present yourself holy and bring your offerings so that God can bless you, when the whole point of the relationship [should be], ‘No, I’m gonna do this because he loves me. I’m gonna do this because he’s amazing and not because [I] have to, [but] because [I] want to.’ That’s the whole thing with religion that’s been throwing off the people. It’s not a ‘have to.’ It should be just like a personal relationship. Like, ‘Hey, I love you because you first loved me.'"
“If we can understand that we’re all imperfect, let’s come to God and come for his help. You’re not weak by doing that. I think that’s a common misperception of Christians, that you’re being weak because you can’t handle it. None of us can handle this world, dude! It’s eating us alive.”
Justin Bieber is known for a lot of things, just like Christianity. It is our job to bring light to these types of testimonies and to share the word of God wherever we go; to live an open-minded, non-judgmental, loving life. We don't know the rest of the story, that is between Him and God, just like yours. Celebrities are real people. Real people mess up. Real people have opinions. What do I mean?
I mean, let's be real, Jesus did not spend his time with the most upright or successful people, he spent his time with those who needed to see and experience His truth, His light and His love. Justin Bieber is letting his light shine, are you?
P.S.: Real people, like JB, also jam in the car and eat McDonald's french fries. For the love of all that is good in the world, embrace it, don't judge it! Let's be real!
