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People of Integrity

 I have a great respect for people who are principled and uncompromising in their moral, political and religious positions, whether I agree with them or not, I consider them people of integrity. 

Which is why it is deeply disappointing and discouraging when they spread gossip, misinformation, untruths or even boldfaced lies to discredit their proclaimed evil, immoral opponents. 

How can such hypocrisy be justified?  I understand and often use rationalizations to justify such incongruity. Win at all costs … ends justify the means … whatever it takes … Each of us hold our ground because we believe we are defending truth. As some would proclaim, truth must prevail, whatever the cost. 

The problem is that when you decide to win at all costs you forget justice, kindness is a liability, and humility a fatal flaw. Phoenix Preacher

Evil and immorality are self condemning. Adopting evil and immoral tactics to attack evil and immoral opponents is also self-condemning. To employ such a strategy inherently renders us dishonest and unscrupulous. We are no longer restrained by integrity and are free to act without moral restraint.

I accept the possibility that many honestly believe they are spreading truth. However, sometimes it doesn’t seem to matter if an assertion is true. If it helps to defeat the opposition, whether it’s true or not is of no consequence. But, it is of consequence. Each time someone relies on untruths to demean, defeat  their opposition, they destroy their integrity and hurt their cause. Of course that’s not an issue if the objective is to destroy not redeem.

A single lie discovered is enough to create doubt in every truth expressed.

In this media dominated age of information overload we must do the hard work of discerning truth before speaking, posting or writing. That is no easy task, but if truth and integrity is important to us, we must. Until we learn to discern truth, perhaps we should adopt my mother’s revised admonition, “If you don’t have something true to say, don’t say anything.” 

I believe truth defeats evil. I am not optimistic that we have the courage  to pursue truth, regardless of the costs.  

The path of least resistance is our GPS default.
Truth is a road less traveled.

We need a Lion.

He [Buddha] tells the story of a hare disturbed by a falling fruit who believes that the earth is coming to an end. The hare starts a stampede among the other animals until a lion halts them, investigates the cause of the panic and restores calm. 

“Am I of the Truth?”

I am confident, if an audience, equally distributed between opposing factions, were asked, “Are you of the truth?”, it would be the only point on which everyone would agree.

As I observe continuing conflict and division in our society, it is fascinating to see each side claim truth. It seems to matter little if there is objective evidence to the contrary. Either side, when presented irrefutable evidence that their position is not true, often responds, “I don’t care about that, I know what is true.” I suppose there is no such thing as irrefutable evidence any longer.

Perhaps we are seeing the logical outcome of a relativistic culture Where knowledge, truth, and morality exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute. I understand this possibility, but I am perplexed by our casual surrender of reasoned truth i.e. if A is true, B cannot be true. Honestly, though, I am increasingly aware that often A is not what I thought and neither is B.
So what does it mean when we say “I am of the truth”?

The following quote I came across this morning is challenging me to think about what is means to be “Of the Truth.”

“If you seriously ask the question, ‘Am I of the truth?’, you are of the truth. If you do not ask it seriously, you do not really want, and you do not deserve, and you cannot get, an answer! He who asks  seriously the question of the truth that liberates is already on the way to liberation.”

Of course Tillich is talking about more than factual truth, establishing what is verifiable by investigation. He certainly includes that. But he is after the deeper levels and originating sources of truthfulness that we might call integrity of character, authenticity in behaviour, consistency in values and ethical choices, an absence of cynicism, an aversion to lies whether spoken, implied or by self-deceit. All of these grow out of the deep subsoil of the soul, the accumulation over time of mistakes and missteps, of good decisions and unselfish choices, those moments of self-discovery, self-awareness and self-correction which are the often hidden work of the Holy Spirit in the conscience and at the well-springs of motive and self-knowing.

I guess the first question for me is: “Am I seriously asking, Am I of the Truth?”

“Distrust every claim for truth where you do not see truth united with love; and be certain that you are of the truth and that the truth has taken hold of you only when love has taken hold of you and has started to make you free from yourselves.” Tillich

The blog post in its entirety can be read HERE

Absolute Faith

Absoluteness and certainty are a hallmark of the moral and spiritual atmosphere of our culture, shaping every action and decision.  The subject of absolute faith has recently addressed by two of my “spiritual directors”, Richard Rohr and Richard Beck. I found them to be helpful, perhaps, you will also.


But one thing I took from this was a big fear I’ve now got about people of absolute faith. I always thought faith of itself was – could only be a positive thing. Everyone talks about the importance of having faith. Well, these guys had faith, absolute faith. And there’s one really desperately upsetting…ideologically, there’s one desperately particularly upsetting moment where – in the book – where I talk about how Himmler and Hoss most admired, as prisoners, Jehovah’s Witnesses. They pointed to them and said, see that faith? That’s the kind of faith we need in our führer – absolute, unshakable faith. (from an interview with Laurence Rees, Auschwitz: A New History)

faith.?Faith is a kind of knowing that doesn’t need to know for certain and yet doesn’t dismiss knowledge either. With faith, we don’t need to obtain or hold all knowledge because we know that we are being held inside a Much Larger Frame and Perspective. As Paul puts it, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we shall see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, just as I have been fully known myself” (1 Corinthians 13:12). It is a knowing by?participation with—instead of an?observation of from a position of separation. It is knowing subject to subject instead of subject to object. 
Richard Rohr


It is amazing how religion has turned the biblical idea of faith around 180 degrees—into a need and even a right to certain knowing, complete predictability, and perfect assurance about whom and what God likes or doesn’t like. Why do we think we can have the Infinite Mystery of God in our quite finite pocket? We supposedly know what God is going to say or do next, because we think our particular denomination has it all figured out. In this schema, God is no longer free but must follow? our ?rules and?our? theology. If God is not infinitely free, we are in trouble, because every time God forgives or shows mercy, God is breaking God’s own rules with shocking (but merciful) freedom and inconsistency!

We do need?enough knowing?to be able to hold our ground. We need a container and structure in which we can safely acknowledge that we do know a bit, in fact just enough to hold us until we are ready for a further knowing. In the meantime, we can happily exist in what some have called? docta ignorantia?or “learned ignorance.” Such people tend to be very happy and they also make a lot of other people happy.  
Ricard Beck

Infinity? I Just Want to Make Production.

In my early days as a production supervisor, Ford Motor Company and the U.S. automotive industry had a quality problem that threaten their very existence.

Back in the day… when I was a production supervisor at Ford Motor Company

Production supervisors’ primary responsibility is to achieve production goals(standards) as determine by people who know what is required to be a profitable enterprise; but have little understanding or concern for what is necessary to achieve them. Production standards in themselves are a challenge, made all the more difficult by the fact that people are necessary to achieve them. In the automotive assembly business, production supervisor is consider, by many, the most difficult job. Although, a production supervisor job description includes usual requirements associated with managing people and processes, the reality is, those won’t matter if you don’t make production. It does not take long to understand your number one priority, production.

As a production supervisor there are two frightening realities. On one hand, your manager is ever vigilant and prepared to threaten and berate you, or fire you as promised. On the other hand, you can only achieve production with the cooperation of your employees. Employee’s cooperation wouldn’t be So difficult, except for the fact they most often don’t believe production standards are fair.

Because employees feel production standards are unfair and supervisors are required to achieve them, it is easy to understand how relationships between supervisors and employees become adversarial. Supervisors are tasked with satisfying two masters, neither of which are ever satisfied. The production environment is mercurial, ranging from peaceful co-existence to outright warfare.

Eventually,I came to recognize an interesting phenomenon. In times of relative calm, employees would achieve production requirements consistently, barring uncontrolled interruptions of material shortages, equipment failure, etcetera. Eventually, despite assertions of unfairness, production would be achieved in less than allotted time. The result would be what was termed “hot time” . “Hot time” being the amount of time gained by exceeding expected production rates. i.e., if the standard was 10 units per hour and the team/person was able to produce 10 units in 50 minutes, the 10 minutes gained was theirs to use as they saw fit. That arrangement worked well for supervisor and employees, to a point. It could easily get complicated for supervisors. A fundamental indicator of efficiency is employees constantly working, accordingly if a supervisor’s manager observed employees not working, it was problematic, no matter production being achieved. The problem was compounded when employees figured out that if they “banked” their “hot time” to the end of the shift they could leave early, having achieve production for the day.

It became particularly embarrassing for the supervisor if a manager showed up an hour before shift end and found all the employees gone. Not only did supervisors have to meet production, they had to enforce rules. Clock-in when you arrive and clock-out when you leave. Only pay for time on the clock. Leaving without clocking out or having someone else clock you out were disciplinable offenses. All of which came into play with “hot time”.

Astute supervisors managed “hot time” challenges by whatever means available and as long as production was achieved, managers were not concerned. That worked well until competition and company profit objectives demanded more production at less costs. As everyone understood, eventually there would come an announcement that tomorrow, production requirements are increasing, Instead of 10 units per hour, it will be 11 units per hour. Not only is an additional unit needed, cost needs to be reduced, so 11 units will have to be produced with the same amount of people.

“Hot time” is prima facia evidence increased requirement is achievable with no added people. Magically, upon announcement of 11 units per hour , “hot time” disappears and 10 units per hour becomes consistently unachievable. The ensuing battle to achieve new production requirements becomes furious. Supervisors use all available tools, including, but not limited to, persuasion, begging, threatening, cursing, and disciplinary measures. Employees file grievances through their union reps and conflict becomes a daily routine.

LIke a mating ritual, with managers knowing they hold power, supervisors unable to compromise; eventually employees, weary of relentless harassment, submit to the inevitable and achieve new production requirements, previously declared impossible. Amazingly “hot time” returns and business as usual resumes. That cycle was repeated, ad infinitum.

Things a Production Supervisor Learns

  • Production standards are an asset and a liability. Having standards is leverage. If production is not achieve … i.e. “we’ll all lose our jobs”. They are a liability because they are a ceiling. Standards are never exceeded.
  • Production standards are never achieved 100% of the time. Even if everyone does exactly what they should there will always be uncontrollable factors causing loss of production.
  • If you get behind on production, you can not catch up, because to do so would require employees to exceed the standard.
  • The only way a supervisor can make up lost production is with cooperation of employees. A tenuous proposition ,since doing so will become evidence justifying future production increases. Only when the supervisor has the trust and confidence of his employees will they consider taking the risk of exceeding the standard and achieving production.
  • Success for a production supervisor depends upon his relationship with his employees. Power and authority are required, but not sufficient.
  • Production standards seldom, if ever, meet or exceed human beings’ capacity for creativity and innovation.
  • Reliance on production standards a the means to success inherently creates an adversarial culture.
  • Employees are responsible for quality problems, whether lost production or sub-standard work.
  • A “don’t ask, don’t tell” culture permits the use of any means/methods necessary to achieve production.

Production Standards not Enough

Ford Motor Company, not only survived but, flourished for nearly a hundred years as a production enterprise. Passing through gauntlets of union organization, dictatorial and despotic leadership the company became the flagship of the automotive industry. Their corporate culture was built on production principles and techniques. It served well until competition arrive in the form of Japanese automobiles. Lulled by a stereotypical view of Japanese industry as incapable of producing quality products, U.S. auto motive industry scoffed and doubled down on their tried and true methods and strategies. The broader story is beyond this post, but the truth is clear, Japanese automotive industry competition brought U.S. automotive industry to the brink of failure.
There were a number of competitive factors, the most prominent being quality. In its simplest form, quality was measured by TGW’s (things gone wrong). TGW’s were direct feedback from customers. The difference between Japanese TGW and U.S. TGW was astounding. Because TGW, in large part, directly related to production issues, production supervisors’ became a key part of fighting the competition through improved quality.

Consistent with production principles, the intuitive response to improve quality was ” do better”. Production standards remained preeminent, only now they had to be achieved with quality. In the existing production environment, achieving quality was often an impediment to making production standards. Employees, like their supervisors clearly understood the priority of production. Given the choice of making production or taking time to correct a problem, production always won out. Production supervisors’ job, difficult enough with production as priority, became exponentially harder.

The conundrum production supervisors faced can be illustrated by an early tactic employed to improve quality. An edict instituted by management was that no unit was to be produced with a defect. If a defect was discover, the production line must be stopped and the problem resolved before the line resumed. Those who know the cardinal rule of production,”never stop the line” , will understand the radical impact of that edict. At first, it seemed to simplify production supervisors responsibility, except production standards still had to be achieved, and, of course, there was no edict rescinding the long standing rule, “if you stop the line you will be fired”.

Production’s response to management was “I can give you production, or I can give you quality, but, I can’t give you both”. Management’s response was “If the Japanese can do it you can do it.”
Production standards were no longer enough.

Achieving Quality

For Ford production supervisors, quality meant producing a prescribed amount of units meeting established specifications.Not withstanding obvious external factors, quality problems were assumed to be a result of people not performing as expected. Accordingly, all quality problems could be resolved by employees doing better, working harder. Believing people to be the problem, only willing do their jobs correctly when properly motivated, successful supervisors become adept at necessary skills: manipulation, intimidation, fear, punishment, persuasion, to name a few. Initial quality improvement efforts did little to produce better quality, despite people working harder. Supervisors became increasingly frustrated by the schizophrenic demand for production and quality.

In contrast Japanese understood quality as ” a broad concept that goes beyond just product quality to also include the quality of people, processes, and every other aspect of the organization.”  With that understanding, achieving quality improvement was not a matter of working harder but required a completely new paradigm; a cultural shift beyond Ford’s and U.S. automotive industry’s comprehension. In retrospect, the Japanese were like Buzz Lightyear declaring “To Infinity and Beyond”. Inexplicably, the Japanese relied upon commitment to continuous and unending quality improvement, production standards were not enough.

Almost 50 years later, the story of U.S. automotive industry’s struggle to understand and create a new paradigm is still being written. That reality clearly illustrates the depth and breath of the challenge faced. Paradigm shift is not about renovation, but transformation; better understood as larva to butterfly metamorphosis. A final verdict is yet to be rendered. I would describe U.S. automotive efforts as “Laodician” “..you are neither cold nor hot …you are lukewarm…”

Supervisor or Leader

Regardless of Ford’s ultimate success or failure of Ford to improve quality, the short-term impact on supervisors was swift. Changes were dramatic and traumatic. Implementation of Employee Involvement, a program based on the principle that employees, rather being the problem were the answer. Responsibility for most quality problems lay with management and employees were underutilized resources, necessary to identify and resolve quality problems. Command and control was replaced by cooperation, involvement, relationship and respect as motivational tools. Supervisors, in some cases, felt like guards at Auschwitz after its liberation.

The response of supervisors was prescient of management and corporate response. Faced with an ultimatum, some resisted and were purged, most complied. Although willing, supervisors were ill equipped for their new role, team leaders. Skills developed and rewarded in the past became ineffective and often counter-productive. Absent support of a necessary culture shift, supervisors’ response was a “lukewarm” whatever necessary for survival.

Things Team Leaders Learned

  • Quality is a shared responsibility and cannot be improved by edict, slogans, objectives.
  • Good decisions depend on good data.
  • Employees’ trust is essential.
  • Quality is Job#1 (Ford slogan, ironically)
  • Quality will not be improved in an adversarial environment.
  • Achieving quality is a systems problem.
  • Quality improvement is not finite but continuous, making numerical objectives irrelevant.
  • “To Infinity and Beyond” is the only appropriate slogan.

Quality is the degree to which performance meets expectations.

Consider a few expectations we hold for our nation, our government, organizations, families, marriages and ourselves.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.””

“In the name of God, I take you to be my wife/husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.”

Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God under pains and penalties of perjury?

Integrity: We work with customers and prospects openly, honestly and sincerely. When we say we will do something, we will do it; when we say we cannot or will not do something, then we won’t do it. Enron

David French meets Kanye West

While I am working on a extended blog post, I want to share David French’s recent post on his encounter with Kanye West. Being a bit skeptical of Kanye’s recent conversion I found it to be particularly encouraging and an occasion for reassessment and repentance. Enjoy

The first sign something was unusual about last Sunday morning was that it didn’t take the normal four ounces of C4 to blast my 19-year-old son out of bed early in the morning. In fact, he was “salty” at me for not getting up promptly at 5:50 a.m. The second sign something was unusual was that my family and I showed up outside the LeConte Center at Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, for a worship service three hours early, and we were about 200th in line. The third unusual fact about that Sunday morning was that one of the worship leaders was going to be Kanye West. Yep, I attended a Kanye “Sunday Service.” Here’s the tale.The story begins in December. Scott Dawson, the leader of the Strength to Stand Student Bible Conference, canceled a planned Sunday morning appearance by Christian comedian John Crist after reports that Crist committed multiple acts of sexual misconduct. Dawson reached out Kanye to ask if he’d be willing to bring his Sunday Service to the heart of Appalachia, and West agreed. Within moments of the announcement, my eagle-eyed mother spotted the news and texted my wife. Nancy activated immediately. She reached out to Strength to Stand, found out it was a youth conference, signed up as a family ministry, and within an hour the fictional “David French Family Ministry” had six passes to Sunday Service. And so, there we were—one month later—standing in the freezing cold outside the conference center as thousands of mainly Southern Christian kids streamed into the line. It brought back memories of my own youth group days, of piling into a church bus way too early, joining a mass of other kids—split almost evenly between those who wanted to be there versus those who had to be there—and waiting, always waiting, for the next event, the next concert, or the next speaker who was going to try to change our lives.But this morning, the atmosphere was electric. Youth conventions are always at least a little bit exciting, but this was at a different level. Sprinkled within the crowd were a few true, hardcore Kanye fans. You could spot the Yeezy shoes. You could spot the Kanye concert shirts. My son, wearing his own Yeezys and sporting his “Jesus is King” merch, sought out a small group of Kanye-ologists. No, they weren’t there for the conference. Yes, they were there only for Kanye. That was the exception. The youth group kids kept flowing in, by the hundreds, then the thousands, until the final count neared 12,000. They marched in like small, undisciplined Roman legions, often behind a youth pastor or adult volunteer who held up a sign on or a symbol on a long pole—their version of the Roman eagle—so the students could always find their group in the scrum. Sometimes the sign had a name. Sometimes it was just the big, beaming face of the youth pastor. One youth group walked behind a stuffed squirrel at the end of a 10-foot pole. We waited almost two hours for the doors to open, and when they did, the conference staff just let us pour in. There wereo seat assignments. It was general admission. But these were southern Christian kids supervised by southern Christian parents. So there was almost no running. There was no jostling. There was just a polite, fast walk to the front. As we made our way close to the stage, I was struck by something unusual. I didn’t see any merchandise for sale. There was no Kanye gear. There were no promotions for Kanye. There were no pictures of Kanye—at least not that I saw. If you’d just walked up, you’d have no clue that one of the world’s biggest stars was about to perform. We fast-walked to sit seven rows back from the circular platform. It was slightly elevated above the crowd, and the edges were covered in flowers. The fragrance of flowers filled the room. A few musicians worked with the instruments, and big screen televisions above the stage played promotional videos for the conference. As the minutes ticked down to 10 a.m., the scheduled start of Sunday Service, the buzz intensified, but it was clear from the beginning that this was a service, not a concert. There would be no “mosh pit” by the stage. Everyone was to remain in their seats. Just after 10 a.m., Scott Dawson opened the proceedings with a prayer, introduced Kanye and his “Sunday Service Collective,” and then we waited. First, there was silence, then there was music. Kanye’s choir walked in. One by one, they passed by in plain robes. Everyone strained to look. Where was Kanye? He was there, walking as if he was just another member of the choir. Most folks, who were looking for an individual introduction, didn’t notice as he passed. He moved, still largely unnoticed to the center of the stage, and the choir surrounded him in a circle. He was lost to sight.The service began, and this was not “Kanye’s” show. The choir director, Jason White, stood, the choir sang, and I was instantly blindsided by the power and the emotion of the songs and the sheer, awesome talent of the singers. I’m convinced that Gospel choir music has to be heard live to be appreciated. It’s only live that the sheer exuberance of the worship is fully communicated and transmitted to the audience. It is not just a “joyful noise” to the Lord. It is joy to the Lord. And for song after song, that joy radiated from the stage. There were new songs. There were old hymns. It all glorified God. It all praised Jesus.And there was no Kanye. He remained out of sight. Then, about 30 minutes in, with zero fanfair, he stood and led the audience in a few songs from his Jesus Is King album, but again not as a concert focused on him, but as worship, focused on Jesus. The first segment of Sunday Service culminated in an extended version of “Selah,” and I have to confess that rarely (if ever) in my life have I ever been so profoundly and simply happy to worship God. After Kanye’s brief appearance, White introduced Adam Tyson, the pastor of Placerita Bible Church, a small church a few miles outside of Los Angeles. Tyson’s Sunday Service sermons have spread across social media, and they’re best-characterized as straight-ahead, bible-based Gospel preaching. He’s not trying to be hip. He’s not trying to be funny. He pulls up scripture, and preaches it. Last Sunday, he preached directly to 12,000 kids about the prodigal son. He asked the prodigals in the room to return to their Heavenly Father. He spoke for about 10 minutes, then sat down.The last segment of the service repeated the first. White and the choir sang, Kanye was out of sight, and then—at the very end—he stood up again and closed the service with an extraordinarily powerful rendition of “Jesus Walks,” combined with an old spiritual called “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me.” Then he finished. He filed out with the choir, and it was over. Within minutes, I saw the squirrel pole rise up again. Youth pastor faces bobbed on poles across the auditorium, and the kids filed out in their youth group clusters. Dawson announced that more than 250 kids gave their lives to Christ in response to the altar call. The room erupted in cheers, and the “David French Family Ministry” left to get pancakes and talk about what we’d just witnessed. So why tell this story? Why spend so much time on Kanye? Ever since Kanye began his spiritual journey, he’s been met with intense skepticism, a skepticism that often lurched into a lack of charity. At various times, I’ve heard confident pronouncements that this is just another money-making scheme, that he’s already lapsing into heresy, or that this is but a passing fad for an unstable star.By guarding ourselves against gullibility, we sometimes embrace cynicism. We place the worst gloss on each new development, then we fold our arms, tap our feet, and wait for the fall. We can’t let people be new Christians—instead we demand they be John Calvin or Thomas Aquinas from day one and punish and scorn them for any theological missteps. We can’t rejoice in an apparently transformed life—instead we fret about its permanence and worry about what happens to his fans if he fails. Some folks move right past religion and start to obsess about politics. They wonder less about Kanye’s faith and more about whether he’ll help or hurt Donald Trump.In fact, Kanye’s relationship with Trump was one of the first things I was asked about when I tweeted about attending Sunday Service. I was asked about Trump  when I was a guest on Morning Joe, talking about Sunday Service. I get it. I do. Kanye has placed himself in the political conversation. He was performing in front of an audience that was 99.9 percent white Evangelical—Trump’s core constituency. I can see the reason for the suspicion. But Donald Trump’s name was a million miles from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, last Sunday morning. The name that mattered—more than Trump’s, and even more than Kanye’s—was Jesus Christ. That’s an important reminder for our nation’s political class. Most of American Evangelicalism is far, far removed from politics. Yes, there is an activist community in American Christianity—and that community is disproportionately likely to read this newsletter—but the daily experience of Christian faith in Evangelical America is the experience of those kids (minus, of course, much exposure to megawatt celebrities). They wrestle with their faith. They seek to do right, then struggle to stand when they fall. They sometimes swing from spiritual elation to existential despair. And through it all, parents and pastors walk beside them—facing their own struggles, but united in the conviction that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Moreover, there are times when the greatest ambassadors for the Gospel are those people who’ve struggled and fallen and then risen again only by the grace of God:  people like Kanye West. I don’t know the future, but I do know that moment in Pigeon Forge, and in that moment God was glorified, young people encountered Jesus, and my family was deeply encouraged.I’ll close with some food for thought—and a marvelous truth about the Gospel. Shortly after Kanye’s spiritual renewal became very, very public, my wife reminded me of an old blog post by our friend Russell Moore. “The next Jonathan Edwards might be the man driving in front of you with the Darwin Fish bumper decal,” Moore said. “The next Billy Graham might be passed out drunk in a fraternity house right now.” Oh, and “[t]he next Charles Wesley might be a misogynist, profanity-spewing hip-hop artist right now.” Our present condition is not predictive of God’s divine purpose.Again, I do not know what the future holds. But we do know how God works, and last Sunday I saw God work though Kanye West.