Taylor Swift and Kanye West - the Showdown!

Picture sourced from 

http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/61620/20100913/taylor-swift-absolves-kanye-west-in-mtv-vma-2010.htm

Last weeks MTV VMA awards have left me thinking a lot this week.  I didn't actually watch them, but all over the news headlines in the buildup was speculation on what would happen between between Kanye West and Taylor Swift.  For those of you that don't know, last September as Taylor was receiving the award for best female video, Kanye walked into her spotlight ... into her moment to shine, and said that Beyonce should have received the award.  Wow.  Imagine it.  You are 19 and it's your moment and then someone tries to take that from you.  What would you feel ... how would you feel?  Public opinion was for Taylor and Kanye experienced major backlash in his personal life and his career.  It rocked his world.


Fast forward to this year.  Taylor and Kanye are both presenting songs at the awards.  The media are in a frenzy and most speculation is that Taylor is going to skewer Kanye.  He had acted terribly.  The crowd are rooting for her.  As I read this, I was saddened at the thought that this could happen - that Taylor could skewer him and have the support of public opinion behind her.  Taylor was in a place of power.  What did she do with it?  She started her performance with a video flashback to last year and then she started to sing (and while it wasn't the best vocal, it was one of the most powerful things I have ever heard) ... check it out here and read the lyrics below:


I guess you really did it this time
Left yourself in your warpath
Lost your balance on a tightrope
Lost your mind tryin' to get it back

Wasn't it easier in your lunchbox days?
Always a bigger bed to crawl into
Wasn't it beautiful when you believed in everything?
And everybody believed in you?

It's all right, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent
You're still an innocent

There's some things you can't speak of
But tonight you'll live it all again
You wouldn't be shattered on the floor now
If only you would sing what you know now then

Wasn't it easier in your firefly-catchin' days?
And everything out of reach, someone bigger brought down to you
Wasn't it beautiful runnin' wild 'til you fell asleep?
Before the monsters caught up to you?

It's all right, just wait and see
Your string of lights is still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent

It's okay, life is a tough crowd
32, and still growin' up now
Who you are is not what you did
You're still an innocent

Time turns flames to embers
You'll have new Septembers
Every one of us has messed up too

Lives change like the weather
I hope you remember
Today is never to late to
Be brand new

It's all right, just wait and see
Your string of lights are still bright to me
Oh, who you are is not where you've been
You're still an innocent

It's okay, life is a tough crowd
32, and still growin' up now
Who you are is not what you did
You're still an innocent


Stunning.  Just stunning.  The maturity of a twenty year old who can take her power and use it to offer forgiveness - to model grace.  There in the place of his failure, in front of the place where he wounded her, the place where he fell from favor - she reaches out powerfully to Kanye and says, "I believe in you.  You can be new.  You can be different.  I believe you are not where you've been and you are not what you did."  Wow.  What a stunning offer of hope and what a fantastic model of the grace we find in Christ.  I believe in you.  Who you are is not where you've been.  Who you are is not what you did.  I make all things new.  I will wash you as white as snow.  Your sins are forgiven.  I remember them no more.  


Huge contrast to Kanye's song where he just seemed to hate on himself more and beat himself up - albeit in a sarcastic manner.  His view?  Runaway from me ... I am nothing (except Kanye is a little more explicit than that).  


I look at Taylor and how as a young twenty year old she handled this, and I look at Kanye - someone who has been in the industry a long time - a 33 year old man.  How is it that they have such different approaches to this situation?  What is in their hearts, in their heads to provoke such different responses?  Kanye continued to self-flagellate and Taylor extends a hand of grace.  And that hand of grace in such a public place is one of the most powerful things I have ever seen.  I am grateful for the reminder of the hands of grace that have been extended to me in my life and I am forever grateful for THE hand of grace continually extended to me.  I am praying that I also have hands that willingly extend grace and forgiveness.  And it starts with us.  Who we are is not what we did.  Who we are is not where we come from.  We all mess up ... start with the grace to forgive yourself.  And so we pray, "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us ..."


I'm thinking ... maybe you are too.


Peace.