The attention of the nation has been understandably fixed on the aftermath of Derek Chauvin’s trial and the jury’s verdict that he is guilty of all three charges. As such, other significant events in our culture have largely gone overlooked.

And while I’m not sure I would normally classify the Academy of Country Music Awards as an event of significance, this year’s show qualifies. The ACM made an effort to highlight diversity within their industry, tabbing Mickey Guyton as the first Black woman to co-host the awards show—she shared the evening’s duties with Keith Urban—and capping the night with a performance by the Brothers Osborne, whose lead singer came out as gay last year.

What struck me most, however, was that out of all the storylines and performances that defined the evening, it was the gospel music performance by Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans from the former’s new album My Savior that stole the show by most accounts. (For more on the album, please read Minni Elkins’ excellent article.)

Now, I feel like I need to say upfront that I’m not a fan of country music. Maybe it was an act of rebellion after moving back to Texas in Junior High or perhaps it’s a character flaw I have yet to fully rectify, but the 2021 Academy of Country Music Awards was among the last things I expected to be writing about this week.

Underwood and Winans’ performance, however, goes beyond country music. The response it has received from various media and news outlets offers two important lessons for us to consider today.

Excellence is easy to appreciate

Some of the same outlets that praised Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s performance of “WAP” at the Grammys last month as “show stealing” and “incredible” described Underwood and Winans’ musical journey through the gospel message in similar terms. And after listening to the latter duo’s stirring performance, it’s easy to understand the appreciation it has garnered.

Both Underwood and Winans demonstrated remarkable vocal range and a clear passion for the songs they shared. Whether it was Carrie’s stirring acapella rendition of “Amazing Grace” or the duo’s collaboration on “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” and “The Old Rugged Cross,” it would be difficult to deny the excellence of their performance, even for those who may not ordinarily have given a second thought to the content of what they sang.

But while few can replicate both women’s vocal brilliance, each of us can aspire to their commitment to using the unique set of gifts that God has granted us to the best of our ability and to the pursuit of his glory. Fortunately, that’s precisely what he asks of us.

You see, there is something about the pursuit of excellence that is easy for people to notice and appreciate, regardless of the context in which it occurs. Perhaps it is easier to recognize when it comes to music, athletics, or other more public displays, but the principle applies to our work, our relationships, and our personal pursuits as well.

We see this pattern displayed in the Bible throughout the course of Daniel’s life.

From the time he was brought to Babylon, Daniel’s commitment to excellence and fulfilling his God-given potential attracted the notice and praise of others. Whether it was as a young man with Nebuchadnezzar after he excelled in his training (Daniel 1) or toward the end of his life with Darius (Daniel 6), Daniel modeled Paul’s instruction to the Colossians: to treat every task and every facet of his life as an opportunity to serve God by pursuing excellence in his service to others (Colossians 3:23–24).

And while that unwavering commitment made enemies among those who looked on with jealousy, it also enabled him to share the message of God in ways that would have otherwise been impossible. That, in turn, leads us to our second point of consideration.

Excellence earns the opportunity to share the gospel

While Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans are exceptional singers, the music industry is filled with gifted musicians and they would be among the first to tell you that there are others who can at least rival their vocal abilities. Yet, it’s difficult to see many others being given a platform at a secular award show to spend more than seven minutes singing hymns about the Lord.

Granted, country music tends to be a bit more open to lyrics that speak of God than many other genres, but it is still noteworthy that, on a night when they made a point of celebrating their diversity, the faith often seen at odds with certain elements of that diversity was given such a showcase.

Underwood, however, has spent the better part of two decades building a reputation as one of the industry’s brightest stars, winning sixteen ACM awards throughout her still-thriving career. She has also earned the respect of legends like Dolly Parton, who introduced the performance by saying “I have always admired Carrie’s incredible talent, but I am just as impressed with her personal qualities—compassion, kindness, generosity, and, most of all, the powerful faith that we both share.”

As such, she was given the freedom to “TAKE US TO CHURCH,” as the ACM Awards’ official Twitter account described it. And that’s just what she did, sharing the message of our need for God’s grace, the Lord’s unwavering faithfulness, and his offer of salvation through the gift of “The Old Rugged Cross” before concluding with a powerful invitation to celebrate his greatness.

Everyone who witnesses that performance walks away having encountered the gospel. They may not fully realize it, but the seeds have been planted for the Holy Spirit to work through those lyrics to help people encounter the Lord, perhaps for the first time. And it was her consistent commitment to excellence that earned her that opportunity.

What is your motivation?

A. W. Tozer once wrote that “It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act.”

If we will commit to serving the Lord in excellence, offering our best to him in recognition of the fact that he has offered his best to us, then there is no limit to what he can accomplish through our lives. And each day offers us a new opportunity to do just that.

What will God be able to accomplish through your life today?

Denison Forum

Almost eleven months after George Floyd’s death, a jury of his peers found Derek Chauvin guilty of second- and third-degree murder as well as second-degree manslaughter. Sentencing will occur in eight weeks, but his time in prison has already begun.

As one might expect, reactions to the result have varied.

George Floyd’s brother Philonise described it as “a day of celebration” while others, such as Rev. Jesse Jackson, stated that the result is “a relief, but the celebration is premature.” Pointing to the decision as a potential turning point in police accountability, Tulsi Gabbard tweeted “Thankfully on the verdict of George Floyd’s murder, justice has prevailed. Moving forward this must be the norm—not the exception.”

President Biden and Vice President Harris praised the decision before quickly pivoting to the work left to be done. And Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison went a step further, stating that the guilty verdict “isn’t justice, it’s just one step towards it;” thoughts echoed by the state’s governor, who added that “justice for George Floyd will come through real systemic change, to prevent this from ever happening again.”

On the other side of the spectrum, Tucker Carlson described the trial’s outcome as the jury’s cry of “Please don’t hurt us.” Candace Owens termed it the result of “mob justice,” pointing to the statement by Rep. Maxine Waters in which she urged protestors to “get more confrontational” in the event of an acquittal as evidence of undue pressures placed on the jury to find Chauvin guilty.

Many more likely find themselves caught somewhere in between: aware that Chauvin’s actions were reprehensible, but perhaps unsure if the outcome of the trial was truly just and mostly just grateful that the proceedings ended with a relatively peaceful response.

Regardless of where you might fall along that spectrum of thought, chances are that it’s relatively close to where you sat before the trial ever began. And while that tendency is natural, especially in a case where so much has been litigated through the media as part of the national discourse for nearly a year, it reveals two potential dangers of which we must be aware.

Don’t trade difficult truths for convenient lies

The first issue is that when we approach a situation with a preconceived notion of what should occur, it becomes very easy to prioritize the truths that best fit with what we want to believe while either ignoring or minimizing those that would challenge our preferred perspective.

For example, those who saw nothing wrong with the calls to violence in the case of an acquittal and argued that they couldn’t have possibly swayed the jury’s conclusions were not viewing the situation objectively. However, those who recognized the potential dangers associated with those threats and concluded that they were the only reason the jury rendered a guilty verdict made a similar error. In both cases, people approached the situation so confident that their point of view was correct, they either distorted or ignored legitimate factors because such realities challenged their preferred understanding of events.

We cannot afford to make that same mistake.

Whether it’s in our response to the Derek Chauvin trial or in any other facet of life, we must remain more committed to the truth than to our preconceived notions.

And every day presents us with the opportunity to do just that. After all, few people in history have defied expectations and circumvented the boxes into which people tried to place him as frequently as the rabbi who preferred the company of sinners over self-proclaimed saints and the messiah who chose the cross over an earthly crown. As Christians called to follow his example, we must avoid the temptation to accept convenient lies over difficult truths, even—and especially—when doing so would better fit with our preferred version of reality.

Shifting goalposts

The second danger against which we must guard is closely related to the first. When we become the foundation upon which our understanding of reality is built, what we want to believe functions as the lens through which we view the world around us. That, in turn, can make it tempting to try to constantly redefine reality to better suit that perspective.

With the Derek Chauvin trial, for example, many of those who have spent the last eleven months rightly crying out for justice on behalf of George Floyd quickly redefined what that justice should look like once the final verdict was read. Floyd became a martyr whose legacy could only be honored if officers involved in other shootings received the same fate as Chauvin or when law enforcement has been completely reformed.

And while the police should be held accountable when they unjustly take a life and there are systemic issues within law enforcement that need to change, shifting the goalposts simply because we need something else to continue driving us and giving us a purpose will ensure that we never experience the peace and fulfillment we crave.

That’s an exhausting way to live.

When Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,” that endless pursuit of our self-defined goals is an example of what he wanted to help us avoid (Matthew 11:28–30). It’s only when we accept his yoke and allow him to steer us toward the goals he desires that we can find real peace and the ability to adapt with our circumstances, rather than try to make them adapt to us.

Shaped by God’s truth

Charles Stanley once said, “We are either in the process of resisting God’s truth or in the process of being shaped and molded by his truth.”

A quick glance at our culture reveals which path most people have chosen, and the results speak for themselves.

As the fallout from the Derek Chauvin trial continues to build over the coming days, let’s choose the better path and allow God’s truth to shape our response and equip us to help others do the same.

Denison Forum

Closing arguments were heard yesterday in the trial of Derek Chauvin following three weeks of testimony. It is now up to the jury to decide whether or not Chauvin is guilty of the charges for which he stands accused in relation to his role in the death of George Floyd: second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter.

For many, Chauvin’s guilt was decided as soon as the video of the tragic event went viral shortly after Floyd’s death on May 25^th of last year. Chauvin’s fate, however, is not in the hands of the masses but rather in those of twelve of his peers. As such, what they decide over the coming days will reverberate across the nation and around the world in a way that may shape much of the discourse on issues of race, police conduct, and justice for quite some time.

In light of those potential repercussions, today I’d like for us to focus on how we can best pray for those on the jury, the crowds gathered in anticipation of their verdict, and for our fellow believers to respond in accordance with God’s sense of justice rather than our own.

Why only God can be truly just

Justice can often seem like an elusive concept in our culture. Rarely will multiple people look at the same event or the same outcome and come away with a unanimous understanding of what a just response would look like. And while there are many reasons this is the case—varying degrees of personal proximity to the issue, differing views on the need for grace versus accountability, etc.—the chief factor is that God’s justice is measured out according to a fair and accurate understanding of our sins. We, as fallen humans, lack that ability. 

The third chapter of Genesis offers a helpful example of this distinction.

In this chapter, we see God’s response to the sin of Adam and Eve. He addresses directly what they’ve done wrong, disciplines them in a way that reinforces the gravity of their mistake, but does so from a place of holy opposition to sin rather than a desire to see them suffer. 

Now think back to the last time you were hurt or witnessed an event that filled you with anger and the desire to see justice done. Were you able to respond as the Lord did, administering discipline in accordance with the sin committed? Or did your reaction cross that boundary and come from a place of anger or resentment rather than holiness and the desire for redemption?

If it was the latter, the reason is most likely that when anger leads us to action, the result is often akin to a volcano that has been building toward eruption over a long period of time. Whatever or whomever it is that finally leads us across that threshold to action is likely to receive more than their fair share of our wrath.

As Dallas Willard remarked, “The explosion of anger never simply comes from the incident. Most people carry a supply of anger around with them.” As a result, it is next to impossible for us to justly judge the actions of one person or a group of people when our response is likely determined, at least in part, by the unrelated actions of others as well.

Owning those limitations enables us to better understand why we need the Holy Spirit to help us seek God’s justice for a given situation rather than rely on our own.

Embracing that reality will be essential to justice being done with regards to the outcome and aftermath of Derek Chauvin’s trial as well. As such, let’s close for today by looking at three groups for whom we must pray in light of the need for the Lord’s justice to be done, both in the trial’s outcome and in the aftermath that follows.

First, pray for the jurors

The first group for whom we must pray are the jury members who will soon render the verdict that will ultimately decide Chauvin’s fate. Even without the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the trial, determining if the prosecution has presented a strong enough case that the accused should be found guilty would be a challenging task. When factoring in the outside pressure to come to such a conclusion, their job becomes immeasurably more difficult, even if Chauvin should be found guilty.

Couple that with the temptation to judge Chauvin not just for his role in the death of George Floyd but also as a proxy for other high profile police killings, such as with Breonna Taylor, and, more recently, Duante Wright. Limiting their judgment to the case at hand will likely prove a monumental task.

As such, we must pray that the Lord will give them the ability to judge rightly and fairly based on the evidence presented to render a just decision.

Second, pray for the crowds

And the same is true with regards to the crowds in Minnesota and across the country who have gathered in anticipation of the court’s verdict.

Many see the current trial as an extension of the larger, and often valid, problems with police conduct in this country. To them, Derek Chauvin stands accused not just of killing George Floyd but as a representation of the officers who either have already been acquitted or have yet to stand trial for their roles in the deaths of others. As such, their understanding of justice in this case may not line up with that of the Lord’s, even if their assessment of Chauvin is proven correct.

Pray not only that God’s justice will be rendered in the trial, but that it will prove satisfactory to the masses of people who already seem to have determined what that justice should look like. It is an essential responsibility for us today.

That responsibility, in turn, leads to the last point of prayer we must discuss.

Third, pray for yourself and fellow believers

As followers of Christ, we are tasked with being peacemakers in an often unpeaceful world (Matthew 5:9). It’s important to note, however, that being a peacemaker does not mean simply attempting to limit the presence of conflict in a given situation, though we should seek to avoid actions that would escalate it. Rather, it means being the embodiment of God’s presence and an ambassador for his justice in order to help others look to him for the proper perspective in a given situation. 

Over the coming days, it seems likely that conflict will escalate around the country and social media will once again be filled with people who feel the need to express their views on the situation. Our challenge as believers will be to pray before we post and make sure that we run any and all comments through the lens of Scripture and the Holy Spirit before they escape into the larger world. 

So as we conclude, please join me in committing to make prayer a priority throughout the day. Pray for the jury, pray for the crowds, and pray for yourself and your fellow believers. Do so any and every time the Lord places them on your heart or the news brings them to mind. 

Will you start right now?

Denison Forum