If you’re anything like me, you enjoy watching and following award shows. I don’t know bout you, but I love the liveliness and the glamour (hey a gal will be a gal) that comes with it. And OOH GURL DAT RED CARPET STYLE THO!! Last Sunday night, the 76th annual Golden Globes Awards aired. Although I wasn’t able to watch the entire program, I did read plenty about it in the news the next day. One thing in particular left me feeling really disturbed and it took a whole week for me to fully process it.
One of the biggest “highlight moments” came from Christian Bale, who won Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his portrayal of former vice president, Dick Cheney, in Vice. During his acceptance speech, he made this statement:
“Thank you to Satan for giving me inspiration on how to play this role.”
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…wOw… he really did that. That was my first thought. There were so many things that bothered me about his statement. But I think the biggest thing was how he gave credit to the devil. Like… wutttttt?!? Normally when we “give credit” to something or someone, we assume that they did something good that was deserving of praise and recognition. And so, I guess it bothered me because by making this statement, Bale was essentially saying that the devil contributed something positive and was the reason for his success.
At the start, I was furious. I felt that it was so unfair to God. How could he so easily and publicly give credit to Satan at that moment and fail to give credit to God?!? I really wanted to scream at him Dood you wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for God didya ever think of that HUH?!? Didya ever give credit to God for that?!?
But I think underneath all that surface-level anger, something else bothered me even more. And it was the realization that I also unknowingly give credit to Satan. Maybe not in the way that Bale did, but yes, I too give credit to Satan.
I give credit to Satan whenever I give credit to myself. I give credit to Satan whenever I blame God for my failures and my times of pain. I give credit to Satan whenever I leave God completely out of the picture. I give credit to Satan whenever I give in to my temptations and forget God’s will and provision for my life.
Honestly, the list is probably much longer, but the point is this. God is the only one who is truly deserving of the credit. Everything we have, everything we are is only because of Him. We may fool ourselves into thinking that it was because of our hard work and our talents that we earned success. But ask yourself: Where did your ability to work hard come from? Where did your talents come from? Please DO NOT misplace the credit our God deserves.
It’s unfair of me to get so angry at Christian Bale for doing something that I do on a regular basis myself. Whenever we fail to recognize God’s presence and power in our lives, we all give credit to Satan. I know it’s hard to admit, but if we expect to be transformed by God, the first step we need to take is admit our failures. Only then will our hearts be opened and ready to accept God’s grace.
So, the question I want to pose to you today is:
Who are you giving credit to?
~jo