Greetings,
If you know anything about me, you'll know that I love music. I'm not terribly picky, except I hate country music (it's God's punishment for what we did to the Indians). I'm a huge hip-hop fan, but going into my senior year of high school, I got sick of the message that every "good" hip-hop artist was conveying - money, success, fame, sex, drugs, gang culture. I had heard of a Christian rapper named Lecrae a while back, but blew him off. The Christian "rap" I had been introduced to years ago was mega cheesy. They were trying to do music that had already been done years before. So I shook the dude off and kept bumping my Lil Wayne ("A Milli" was hot back then alright). But I came to a point where I couldn't stand the message anymore. I decided to give Lecrae a look again. I was blown away. The beats were solid. His flow was nice. And he actually had a good message. Well, fast forward two years and we're in present time. I've been a huge Lecrae and 1.1.SIX fan (their rap group, look them up) since. A few weeks ago, Lecrae dropped his latest album, Anomaly, and it blew up. It hit number one on iTunes within a few minutes, and was the number one album in the country according to Billboard. He was on Fallon the week later, as well as interviewed by countless websites and radio shows. If you don't have the album, hit me up and I will buy you a copy (100% serious). The whole meaning behind Anomaly is this - Christians won't fit in. He explains it in this video: http://youtu.be/svFeSR8Smu8.
I love this concept. There is a fine line to being in culture and being a part of culture. I know that there is a time coming up that society, that culture is not ready for. As Christians, I have a feeling that we are going to be so different from the normal, that people will give us attention. Lecrae is a perfect example of this: people are tired of the negativity. People are tired of hearing about money, sex, and cars. We, as believers, bring something new, something positive, something different than what people are used to. And I think that the system, the culture, the society didn't plan for this. You see, I believe each one of us has been given passions and interests to reach every type of person. I look at the things God has placed in my life: sports, music, sneakers, video, and the list goes on and on. I can list faults in each one of these categories. Each one of these things that people put their hope in will fail them. People are looking for hope, for a future now more than ever. Turn on CNN or Fox News and what do you see? ISIS terrorizing innocent people, racial tension and unrest, or some other negative story in the world. As Christians, we have that hope and future people are looking for. We have something that will change the course of someone's life. I believe that people are looking for us to step up and take over. I'm willing to. Are you? Because I know that Jesus through us is going to flip this world upside down.
Thanks for reading this. It truly means a lot that you'd take a minute or two out of your busy and chaotic lives to read this. If you want to know about this hope, if you're struggling with something, or just want to talk, hit me up. I would love to talk. I'm ready for this. Are you? I know the system didn't plan for this anomaly.
Grace and peace,
Nathan
Twitter: @Nathan_A_Jones
Instagram: Nathan_A_Jones
sneakersandasavior@gmail.com