Tim Tebow, Lady Gaga, and a Sign of the End Times

Q: If people use the term "Tebowing" to refer to Tim Tebow, why don't they use the term "gagging" to refer to Lady Gaga??

Q2: How many of you, when you woke up this morning, thought of these two in the same sentence??

The idea for this blog popped into my head a few days ago, when I saw that the Gagster (as I shall henceforth refer to her) visited the White House.  Now I don't for a moment minimize the cause that brought her there.  The more I work with young people, the more sense I get that bullying in 2011 is not at all like bullying was in 1985.  While painful then, the addition of text messaging, Facebook, and other media amplify the opportunities to be hurtful in ways that could not be imagined then.

What did strike me as interesting (and by "interesting" I mean "huh???") is how such a visit legitimizes her as a role model.  Her choice to engage in offensive and sinful behavior, whether in public or private, has become a cause to celebrate rather than lament, giving validity to the idea of being "born this way."

Once again for the record, I am not endorsing bullying, no matter what the reason might be.

What I am saying, or rather asking, is when exactly did it start making sense to celebrate Lady Gaga and denigrate Tim Tebow, who by all accounts is a sincere young man who is honorable in the life he lives and loves his God the way God has instructed us all to in His word?

Then it hits me.  It actually hits me twice.

"...scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires." 2 Peter 3:3

and

"...the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil." John 3:19

Lady Gaga is a hero and Tim Tebow is a villain because mankind loves darkness more than light, and does so increasingly as we approach the end.  Just as some people will eat themselves to death because the pleasure of food blinds them to the consequences, some people will embrace sin and sinful behavior because its pleasure blinds them to its consequences.

But Matt, to each their own.  I mean, if it doesn't affect me, why should I care?

Ezekiel 9 tells an interesting story.  Ezekiel the prophet has a vision from the Lord, in which he is instructed to send for the executioners and one other man, a mysterious man in linen who carries a writing case.  This man then goes throughout the city marking all who mourn over the sin they see (verse 4).  And in an interesting twist, the executioners do not only slaughter the sinners, but those without the marks, i.e. those who do NOT mourn over sin.

That's why I care.  Because sin is not ok. While our nature may be to sin, our choice to sin is just that, a choice.  Because being "born that way" is no more true of sexual preference than it is for any other sin.  Because sin is neither personal nor innocent.

I confess that I really did intend to write a happier piece today.  But what started in my mind as a funny comparison quickly became a source for deep concern and regret.  

See, the tolerance, nay the endorsement of sin has brought down nation upon nation in the history of the world.  And yet we want to think that somehow we'll slip by?

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Galatians 6:7

But let's be clear.  In this Christmas season we read that the angel instructed Joseph to name the baby "Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).  Christ came not to stay as a sweet baby in a manger, but to die as a bloody man on a cross.  And he did so to save us from the very sins we embrace, if we will accept His gift of grace and love in a spirit of humility and repentance.

Among all the gifts of the season, may God grant us all a spirit of repentance this year.