“Jesus on American Idol”

Hey, did you watch American Idol during their “Idol Gives Back” show? I was surprised when they sang, "Shout to the Lord" on Wednesday evening. But then, I was astonished when they opened the Thursday evening show with the same song, this time beginning with "My Jesus" instead of “My Shepherd” as they did on Wednesday. And the group did a fantastic job with the song.And my thoughts about it are simply this: How so like God to orchestrate the American Idol phenomenon to make sure that He is right in the middle of it. 30 million people watched it. 30 million people heard Jesus being exalted. 30 million people listened to a song about the greatness of the promise we have in Christ. 30 million viewers watched a group of talented musicians sing that there is none like Jesus. 30 million people were encouraged to shout to the Lord in worship. Is that awesome or what? It brought me to tears to know that behind the scenes, there He was. It was like out of nowhere, BOOM, He's on stage.

But Jesus has been in the undercurrent of this season's series already. Our family has noticed that a couple of the performers have sung songs that mentioned him explicitly. But this week, it was like no holds barred song of praise. "Shout to the Lord, all the earth, let us sing!" I think that Randy Jackson, one of the judges, could say, "Yo, yo, check it out. Let's have some church, baby! Rock the house!"

And yet Jesus was on American Idol in ways that many of us, including myself, may not have considered. If you are familiar with American Idol, then you know about the special show they do called “Idol Gives Back”. On this night, they show videos of people in Africa and America where suffering and malnutrition and disease are a normal routine of life. The result is that they raise a massive amount of money for the less fortunate on both continents. As I thought about those videos, I remembered the words from Jesus in Matthew 25 about visiting the poor & feeding the hungry. He said, “When you did it to the least of these, you did it to Me.” And I thought, "Oh, Jesus really was on American Idol. I saw Him suffering with AIDS. I saw Him surviving malaria. I saw where He slept on a cold dirt floor. I saw someone knock Him down. I saw Him. It was Him."

I don’t know what your opinions are about “American Idol”, but I know that for one moment in the worldwide phenomenon called (ironically enough) “American Idol”, Jesus was there. He was there being praised in a song. He was there in the eyes of a little child. He took center stage.

And so maybe it’s a lesson for me to look for Jesus in the unexpected places. For when I do, I may be surprised to know that He was there all the time. I just did not notice.

I read the following paragraph from an article by Mindy Caliguire on the topic of simplicity (Great article. go to http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/001/15.79.html & read):

Practicing simplicity in evangelism means telling the truth, saying what's real. This commitment changed what it means for me to share my faith. Now, I stick to my real-time, here-and-now, in-the-moment experience of life with God. I am sharing my faith, not just a set of doctrinal statements (as important as they are).


It really caused me to stop & think about the phrase we use quite loosely in the evangelical church - sharing my faith. My faith is not just a set of doctrinal statements that I believe and willingly confess. My faith is my real-time life experiences with God on a daily basis. It is a dynamic, living, ever-changing relationship with God that is occasionally strong and at other times a weak shadow. My faith is occasionally shot with doubt. At other times it is like a Titanic- sinking iceberg, strong & powerful, destroying anything in its path.


So if I am to "share my faith" with people, then it brings me to say that evangelism is more about authenticity than it is about quoting Bible verses. Now I hastily admit that the truth of God's word and not my story is the saving power of the Gospel. But for the seed of God's truth to fall on good ground, plowing needs to happen. That seems to be the place where "sharing my faith" comes in. The authenticity of my faith in Christ is the hook that says to non-Christ Followers that Jesus does not make everything better and that the Christian life is not a bed of roses. Yet what it does say to people outside the faith is that we are the same on many levels.

I'm no better than you. I struggle with many of the same things that you struggle - with greed, racism, lust, fear, pride. The difference is what I do with it. Rather than choose to live with that stuff controlling my life, I run to God where I discover forgiveness, overcoming strength, and grace to walk back into life knowing that I do not have to be controlled by those things. I choose to trust God with my failures and flaws.

I struggle with innocent suffering and injustices to the poor. And when I wonder to God out loud why He allows such things in our world, I am confronted with that question as well. He asks me: Why do you allow such things in My world?

So if I "share my faith" like that, won't it run people away? Won't they end up asking why embrace the Christian faith if it makes no difference? And that is where the good news rises up. Because in the midst of my struggles with everyday life and with temptations, I find that I have peace when I am unsure, courage to step up, and faith to know that God is at work in our world even when I cannot see it. In a word, it is hope that comes from my Christian faith and hope is a powerful thing.