Last summer, I stumbled upon an article about the most disliked YouTube videos of all time. Number 2 on the list is a music video called “Baby” by Justin Bieber. I decided to watch it and see what all the fuss was about. Musically, it was what I expected. What I didn’t expect was how young and innocent he looked when the song was released. The image of Justin Bieber in my head, informed largely by tabloid photos scattered across the web, was wild-haired, tatted up, and looking lost. But in this video, he was just a bright-eyed kid. What happened in those intervening years?
Money, fame, success…and the bad decisions that often go with it.
Many of us can identify with walking a bit on the wild side during our high school or college years and doing things we regret. But imagine being a teen with millions of dollars at your disposal and millions around the globe essentially falling down before you in worship wherever you go. Then imagine taking your young adult walk on the wild side. It looks different, doesn’t it?
Most of us are as good as we are, not because we’re basically good people, but because God has mercifully kept us from having the opportunity to be as bad as we could be. Bieber walked a hard road. I feel bad for him and others like him who get skyrocketed to fame, only to be shot down by the very people who sent them up in the first place.
In any case, a couple of years ago I saw headlines about how he was getting married and the story that caught my eye was when he was photographed holding Tim Keller’s “The Meaning of Marriage.” I thought, “Whoa…something’s happened to that kid!” He was, unsurprisingly, lambasted in the media for reading the book of a man who believes the Bible, but Bieber was unapologetic. And he got married. Staying married in this world is hard enough for normal people; staying married in Hollywood seems nearly impossible. I’m glad they read the book and I sincerely hope they succeed.
Over the last several years, Bieber has unashamedly proclaimed his commitment to Jesus. It’s easy to sling mud at guys like this, and Lord knows there’s no shortage of that. We can criticize his pastoral associations, dissect the theology of his interviews, and write him off as one more star who will soon bring shame on the Name. But I won’t because I’m learning that:
Cynicism is easy, and frequently justified, but it also blinds us to beauty.
And to be clear, I’m not holding him up as an example or putting him on a pedestal, but rather pointing to him and saying, “Here is a guy who met Jesus, and now he’s different than he was.” Or to put it in Bieber’s own words: “[Jesus] found me in my dirt and pulled me out.” Amen, you and me both, brother.
Now Bieber is aiming to use the gifts and resources he has, at some level at least, to spread the good news he has received to others. This video is an example of that, though it’s not “Christian” per se. It’s a reminder to all of us that with Jesus, tomorrow doesn’t have to be the same as today. The patterns of the past don’t have to be the patterns of the future. Living for yourself can give way into living for so much more…for Someone more. I hope the video inspires and encourages you to love Jesus and love others.
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