About a week ago, Lecrae released his highly anticipated album, All Things Work Together after almost three years since his previous epic release, Anomaly. And in my opinion, Anomaly is a masterpiece but to say that I was shook by the sheer brilliance and realness of this new project is an understatement. Oh my Lecrae, you really did it with this one. You really showed us what it means to make great art. You showed us why. You showed us how. And I don’t even think that’s what you were aiming for. But you did it yo! A proper review will come soon (not by me) but y’all know how I get when something really touches me. Remember my Sense of An Ending review? Yeah, this is kinda what this is gonna be like.
The first time I listened to cry for you, I was going to bed so I didn’t think much of it. Matter of fact, I didn’t think much of the entire album. I wasn’t even going to listen to the album. Lecrae has been taking burns from Christians for some time now because he refused to take on the Christian rapper label and not only that, he intentional decided to go out into the wild and basically befriend non-christians. Making music with them, attending their shows, everything. I kinda understood his heart to an extent when I read Unashamed but a little while after reading that, a close friend sent me a link to an article titled “Bye Lecrae”. The author of that article was very succinct in terms of expression in her approach. I was sold. I texted my friend “I totally agree” back because I had been lowkey judging him too. I just need confirmation and when I got it I jumped at it. Listening to Cry for you changed all that for me tho. Listening to Cry for you opened my eyes.
When I was in 100level, I didn’t have any friends on campus. I had a very close friend that I used to text daily and we would basically talk about everything. At that point in my life I was really struggling with finding a church because I found that the churches around weren’t preaching the gospel. They didn’t know what grace was or how it had saved us. And going to church every Sunday sitting under that ministration left me mildly annoyed and bitter. I hated it. And I would always vent to my friend about this. One Sunday evening, I started again as usual. He said to me “shebi they are taking scriptures from the bible… Don’t worry the Holy Spirit will teach you” Waawu! How humbling. That changed my approach entirely.
I think, and really this is just me thinking, I think as Christians we need to be more open. I think we need to truly always focus on God and what he is doing. I’m not saying Lecrae isn’t guilty of some wrong but can we help him by pointing fingers at him in public and telling him he is wrong? We can’t fam. That’s not the way family handles stuff. If you are not part of his church family, or his immediate family, you can’t really help him. I know that the internet makes us think typing on a screen can solve any problem, but people are more complicated than that. People are delicate. You don’t spank your younger brother in public for doing something wrong, you get home and you give him the spanking of his life there. You let him cry and wail in your compound. True change comes from the inside out. We can’t expect to change the people we don’t even freaking know. This is why I think I will always have beef with social media. I mean, half of the time, we don’t even have the full story, we only have reports from people that don’t know anything either. The fact is, as long as a person has surrendered their life to God and God’s Holy Spirit has entered them, He can use them. It doesn’t matter what they do. God’s word is power. It doesn’t matter if it is a drunkard that is quoting the scripture, the Holy Spirit can expand it in your heart if you are perceptive enough. God’s work is just that—God’s work. It is God that is doing it. Literally. I don’t know how else to explain this, but we need to get it. The human is the vessel. The human is the human. The human is like you; learning, growing, liable to failure, liable to distraction. See the human with the eyes of the father. Love the human with the heart of the father. And the internet is not the place to do it I am telling you. Yes, you can plant a seed on the internet, preach the gospel, pray over people, write seasoned words. But you cannot call somebody out on the internet and expect actual tangible change. You have no right! Do that with somebody you do life with, your best friend, your sister, your classmate, your girlfriend, boyfriend, wife, could even be your leader, but not a stranger online. Except, and this is a hulk-size except, you really do feel that God is leading you do so. And I am almost certain, God would want you to do that privately.
Just imagine if someone you hardly know was accusing you on the internet, would that make you change if you were guilty? Would that help you change? I don’t think so. I think it would depress you to know that the world knows all your secrets, make you sucidal even and if not that, it would give you permission to be hypocritical. Guys, we are only making it harder for people in positions of leadership to be transparent, we are making it harder for them to grow and in the process we are making ourselves bigger and God smaller. Give people space to grow, to repent, to confess, to find grace.
Like I said, this is me just thinking.
Look out for the album review 🙂
The Red Journal 