[Updated, October 2022, Kanye, now goes by “Ye” – His life, like mine is a reminder of our need for the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ and how available it is. May we all grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus. Originally published October 2019]

I’ve always been a huge Kanye West fan…

Just kidding.

Actually, I couldn’t stand his work. Truthfully, I couldn’t even stand him. Never met him…just didn’t like his arrogant, narcissistic, behavior – strutting around like he was the king of all he surveyed. Kanye’s not king, not even close.

So, when news started to break about his conversion and that he was truly repentant and claiming Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior I was skeptical – to put it mildly. Kanye West is a Christian now? He found religion? Got “saved?” Really? Mmm-K.

Then I got to thinking. I realized what career suicide it would be for someone like him to profess boldly the name of Jesus Christ. I started following the news more losely, or really with one suspicious side-eye expecting the façade to give way. I listened to the early reports while still smirking and unconvinced… but that changed today.

I realized two things…

First of all, Kanye, “Ye”, is someone who has been completely, miraculously, and passionately transformed.

When you listen to him speak you can’t help but hear the total change – his language, his demeanor, his vision – he’s always been visionary – and his smile. Oh, wow, that smile! Before when he’d break a smile it always seemed like he’d catch himself and bring it back and get back into character – that smug, unphased, too-cool, character.

But now that smile? That smile just bursts from him. God said that when you are in Christ you are a “new creation – the old has become new” – that’s what Kanye is now – totally new. New heart, new hope, new smile!

The same creative, passionate, powerful man from whose heart poured out grossly violent and explicit lyrics is now gushing praises for God Almighty from the same heart – only it’s not the same heart – it’s a totally changed heart.

He has what God promised would happen, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26) And that’s exactly what Kanye has – a new heart.

The second thing…

I realized was what a smug, judgmental person I had been toward Kanye.

I had never one time prayed for Kanye West. Not once. I had nothing but disdain for his attitude, his music, his influence, his pride.

Not only did I not pray for him, but I also had a terrible, ungodly, hard heart of my own toward a total stranger and a man who needed Jesus. Ouch.

I hated Kanye for his pride and foolishness. And while I was shaking my judgmental head like some arrogant Pharisee, I essentially walked around him and snubbed my petty, prideful heart as I looked down at him up there on stage. But, he may as well have been laying on the ground beaten and wounded…the thing is he was – like a man beaten on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho.

Beaten and wounded people aren’t always laying half-dead on dirt roads in biblical parables – they’re walking around, strutting around, singing, dancing, working, and living…

That was Kanye. And I walked right around him – not really, but really.

And I know better, so the ridiculous hypocrisy of it all really stung when I realized it. God says…

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹ Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.“ (Ephesians 4:17-19)

Did you read that? Did you see those words and recognize that that’s who Kanye was? Guess what? So was I. It was my own “darkened understanding, separated life, and impurity” that kept me judging and completely calloused toward Kanye – really anyone like him in that industry who “given themselves over to sensuality.” Ugh. Again – I knew better and here I was acting like the old Jennifer. The Jennifer without the power of the Holy Spirit working in her.

I was the Jennifer who may as well have said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this…Kanye West.” 

Watching Kanye in a recent interview filmed on his property in Wyoming, I saw the man who I had once scorned only now I was seeing him – really seeing Kanye – a man who has met and been changed by Jesus Christ. (By the way, you really should watch this interview. Wow. Just, wow.)

I’m sure I will never meet Kanye this side of Heaven, but I prayed today for forgiveness for my crappy attitude, and I will continue to pray for him and for his family. I will from this experience know to pray – for my heart to be humble and for the hearts of all broken people to meet Jesus and be healed.

Kanye has always been a child of God, and I should have been praying for him. Now he’s a brother in Christ, and I’ll be praying for him and for all to see and know what Kanye knows…I’m not king, Kanye’s not king…Jesus is King.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog today. I hope it was an encouragement and something you found interesting and helpful. That’s why I write. I get little nuggets in my brain and I write to get them out and to also, hopefully, maybe, encourage, challenge, and connect with others – like you! I’d love it if you subscribed to get more. You can follow me on Facebook or Instagram and I also share content on YouTube. Leave a comment below and let me know what you thought of this post! Click below to stay in touch!