If Christian rapper Lecrae had to pick one word to define his role in the holiday hit “Journey to Bethlehem,” it might be: challenging. But despite the difficulty of having to figure out how to portray the angel Gabriel and mix it with music and comedy, the challenging nature of the project was also one of the things he loved most about it.
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“The unique part for me was becoming someone different. A lot of times in music you’re just an extension of yourself, you’re expressing yourself in a different way, but this was a completely different person, a being that I had to become — and not even a human being — so add that challenge to it as well,” he recently told the Washington Times’ Higher Ground. “I loved it though. It stretched me and it helped me to think about things in a different way.”
If you’re familiar with Lecrae, you probably know that he has never been one to shy away from challenges — or difficult conversations. Most recently, he made headlines for his response to openly gay rapper Lil Nas X, who said he was entering a “Christian era” with his music. While some Christians were quick to condemn, the 44-year-old took a different tactic.
“Jesus came and He wasn’t going around just grabbing up prostitutes and people who were sinful and just condemning them. He was showing them a better way. He was showing them that there’s a Kingdom way,” Lecrae said. “And I think that’s one of the things I was challenging people to do [in my response to Lil Nas X].”
The two-time Grammy award winner was no doubt speaking from his own salvation experience, having faced childhood abuse, drugs, alcoholism, the abortion of his unborn child and an unsuccessful suicide attempt before fully submitting his life to Jesus.
“[The Kingdom way] is not where we tear you down because you’re doing things that we don’t agree with,” Lecrae explained. “It’s where we lovingly walk by you and help you understand what grace has done for us [Christians], what forgiveness has looked like for us, and in light of that forgiveness, what genuine repentance looks like and how that takes place in our lives.”
And while the rapper waited nearly two weeks to respond to the Lil Nas X news, he admitted that he still struggles to “be slow to speak” when it’s a topic that he’s very passionate about.
“I think the consistency that people will see with me is that you’ll never have to wonder, you’ll never have to scratch your head or guess about whether or not I’m passionate about something or sincere about something because I’m going to speak about it,” Lecrae said. “And as you grow, you learn to gain as much information and insight as you can, and to listen and not just be so quick to speak.”
And at the end of the day, the rapper says we have a responsibility as Christians to treat people as more than just a “soundbite on social media,” knowing that winning people to Christ is more important than any political or cultural debate.
“Don’t believe the lie that somehow the empire is bigger than the kingdom… The world is broken. There is… no political tribe responsible for the brokenness in humanity… And there’s no one tribe that’s going to fix it. It’s only going to be done by the power of the Kingdom,” he said. “And I think that’s some of the things God has shown me in the midst of everything when things are crazy, chaotic and confusing all over the world I just have to think that some kind of way God is not shocked… He can make beauty from ashes.”
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Marissa Mayer is a writer and editor with more than 10 years of professional experience. Her work has been featured in Christian Post, The Daily Signal, and Intellectual Takeout. Mayer has a B.A. in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing from Arizona State University.
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