Alice Cooper, the “Godfather of Shock Rock,” shocked the music world when he announced he had become a Christian. He believes he is part of an inevitable spiritual awakening. “Humanity is craving for answers,” he said. “There is something better… If you don’t feel it now, you will. Trust me.”
He calls himself in his former life the “poster boy for moral decay.” He said, “I’ve got a lot to be forgiven for… out of ignorance.” Don’t we all? In Biblical parlance, you walk in darkness or light. “If anyone walks in the day,” Jesus said, “he does not stumble because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles because the light is not in him” (John 11:9-10).
To walk in the light of Christ is to live a changed, repentant life. And that can cost you. It cost Zaccheus, the corrupt tax collector, a pledge to return his ill-gotten gains. To walk in the light of Christ means having courage to face cultural headwinds. Daniel prayed in front of his open window three times a day in defiance of those who would restrict his religious freedom.
Standing against the cultural headwinds of our day can cost you friends, respect, and more. To call out some of those headwinds, scienticism is the belief that science will answer all significant questions. Politicism is the belief that government should provide all necessary solutions. Expressive individualism counsels you to look inside for your authentic (and quite subjective) truth. Reinvented religion de-scandalizes Christianity so that it conforms with the cultural mood. That’s not “contend(ing) earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints” (Jude 3). The repentant life means walking in faith and in God’s truth and accepting the resulting cost.
Trusting God and doing right things takes courage. When Jesus said to walk in the day, he was walking toward Jerusalem to face the cross. Daniel saw the shadow of death in the face of a lion. Zaccheus risked losing face when he admitted his fraud. For Alice Cooper, it means having the courage to publicly head out in a new direction, even with his music. The lyrics of his 2011 song, “I Am Made of You,” express his Godward journey. “In the beginning I was blind, living in a world devoid of light. In the beginning there was only night. Then I called you from the darkness where I hide. I can stand now ‘cause your love has made me strong. You’re the singer. I’m the song.”
Faith, repentance, courage, and cost are part and parcel of the joyful Christian journey. Why travel in the dark, when you can see by the light of the world?