For the last few weeks, I’ve stared slack-jawed at the TV while Lady Gaga gyrated across the stage in her scant alien-esque costumes, and said shocking things to the American Idol contestants while coaching them.  Actually, I didn’t stare too long, since we DVR all our shows.  The Fast Forward button was definitely in order for that occasion.  Soon, I started seeing outraged comments on social media, and even posted one of my own:

“I didn’t need to see THAT from Lady Gaga.”

I have a confession to make.  I kind of like her music. She has a great voice, she can rip up the piano and dance like crazy. She’s talented.  Truly, I will not let my children watch her, nor do I enjoy viewing her sexualized antics on video.  I’ll be content to belt out “p-p-p-p-Poker Face” in the shower.

What surprised me was the level of ire directed at her from Christians.  As I watched my Facebook and Twitter streams roll by, I caught several references to her as “trash” or “scum,” and it made me uncomfortable.  My heart hurt a little, although I do understand that gut reaction.  I, too get angry when celebrities introduce my children to grown up issues before they’re ready. I couldn’t put my feelings  into words until I read this post this morning at Living With Power.  Lina concludes with

I often wonder what my life would be like without Jesus Christ. I certainly wouldn’t be as famous as Lady Gaga, nor would I put myself in an egg for a show.

But I do know I’d be lost and desperate.

Were it not for grace. (read the whole piece)

Lina gives four compelling reason why she doesn’t “hate” Lady Gaga, and I imagine some people would say, “Oh, I don’t hate her,” even while calling her trash.

But the thing is-  I was the same as Lady Gaga – before I knew the Lord. Albeit, Gaga is more exhibitionist, slightly more strange, and wildly more famous.  I was, like her, searching for acceptance, many times through male attention. I was angry at the world, self destructive, wounded, and lost. (Despite my putting on a peachy keen facade to the world) My alien costume was of a fun, popular chick, while underneath I was hurting.

I believe there must be a specific time when a Christian consciously accepts Christ and decides to walk with Him.  Until that time, sin rules our lives, whether covert or overt. None of us can have power over sin without the cleansing blood of Jesus covering us, His forgiveness turning our rags into robes and our ashes into beauty.

So how does God see Lady Gaga?

She is a lost sheep. I was once a lost sheep.

1Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. 2 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

3 Then Jesus told them this parable: 4 “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:1-7

She is the Samaritan Woman at the Well. I was once the woman at the well.

10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

John 4:10-18

Jesus was honest about her sin. He didn’t sugar coat or tip toe around the issue. Jesus calls it like He sees it, and He convicts us of our sin. But he doesn’t condemn, He offers hope. He is the friend of sinners, all the while challenging them to let Him change them.

Does Jesus condone the behavior of Lady Gaga or those like her? No, of course not.  Likewise, he didn’t condone the behavior of the prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors he ate with.  He didn’t condone MY sin. But He sent Christians to invite me over for dinner, confront me about eating disorder dabbling, pray for me for over a year, and then guide me into the Kingdom when I was ready. He said to me, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  (John 8: 11)

What does Jesus think of her? He is no doubt grieved by her hurting heart, the power sin has over her, and how she influences others. However, she is a beloved lost sheep, a lost precious coin, the prostitute being stoned in the Temple Courts

“There, but the Grace of God, go I.”