Kathy Griffin's Outrageous Comments
September 25, 2007
Did you hear about the acceptance speech comedian Kathy Griffin gave the other night when she won an Emmy award for her program, "My Life on the D-List"? She said, "A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus." And as she thrust her arms in the air, she proclaimed, "This award is my God now!"
Wow! When you're on the D-List, I guess you have to say outrageous things in order to work your way up. But one hopes and prays that God brings Ms. Griffin to repentance and faith before she has to give an account for such a blasphemous statement.
Curiosity got the better of me a few nights later when Griffin appeared on CNN's Larry King Live. I wasn't surprised to hear her tell King that she meant what she said and, in fact, was enjoying all the publicity she was receiving.
But something she said later caught my attention as she tried to explain what she meant. It gave me pause and I hope it does you as well. She said, "I always think it's funny when the rappers and the starlets and the athletes, they get an award and they thank Jesus, as if Jesus doesn't have anything better to do than to make sure that someone got their People's Choice award, or whatever."
Don't get me wrong, if God is in control of every hair that falls from your head, He's also very much in control of who wins awards. That's why we call Him Sovereign.
But part of what I hear Griffin conveying is her distaste for the selfish, childish notion that God's only mission is to give us everything we want in life. When was the last time, you heard an athlete say, "First of all, I want to give God thanks for letting us lose this game." Again, don't get me wrong, better is one day in God's courts than thousands elsewhere. But being in His court doesn't always mean that we're always going to have our socks blessed off.
This side of heaven, great joys will sometimes be mixed with disappointment, pain, sadness and grief. The great blessing of being a child of God is the promise that He's working out those things for our good and His glory!.
Few things have moved me more than reading the words of General Stonewall Jackson in the final days of his life. During the Battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863, Jackson was shot accidentally by his own men.
The wound would force doctors to amputate his left arm. His chaplain, Tucker Lacy, visited Jackson at his bedside and exclaimed, "Oh, General! What a calamity!"
Jackson responded with words that ministered to his chaplain: "You see me severely wounded, but not depressed; not unhappy. I believe that it has been done according to God's holy will, and I acquiesce entirely in it. You may think it strange; but you never saw me more perfectly contented than I am today; for I am sure that my Heavenly Father designs this affliction for my good. I am perfectly satisfied, that either in this life, or in that which is to come, I shall discover that what is now regarded as a calamity, is a blessing."
Jackson would go on to say, "I can wait, until God, in his own time, shall make known to me the object he has in thus afflicting me. If it were in my power to replace my arm, I would not dare to do it, unless I could know it was the will of my Heavenly Father."
The apostle Paul reminds us to give thanks in everything, good and bad. As we do, maybe folks will begin to take our walk with Christ a little more seriously.
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