By: Ayana Bryant-Weekes
“I don’t think I’m considered a hoe [any] more; your ‘hoeness’ can
get deleted...” A strikingly bold and culturally unsupported response from
Basketball wives star, Draya Michele, when asked if she still considered
herself a “hoe”; Draya’s reply reared a tidal wave of not-so-nice reactions
and responses. I hadn’t actually seen the Breakfast Club interview where
Draya defended her new “good girl” image but the slew of social media
commentary had me curious.
The general consensus: “Hoeness” cannot be deleted, end of
discussion. Why not? Especially if you’re no longer a promiscuous being.
I found myself preparing to have the same argument I kept having over
and over again with people – primarily males – who criticize a woman
for turning from her promiscuous ways. I also found myself hurt and
discouraged because this attack hit close to home.
For myself, and a multitude of other girls who didn’t get it right the
first time, and are actively trying to turn from a past we may not be proud of
in the face of people who cant seem to trade in an old nature for a new, the
attack on women and their decision to keep their bodies pure, for whatever
reason, is so unfairly met with cynicism, ridicule and unforgiveness.
The song that repeats in my head as I type is Moving Forward by
Isreal Houghton, “You make all things new, yes, You make all things new
and I will follow You forward…” I guess my alacrity to accept Draya’s
statement comes from believing that it’s not up to other people to consent
to our decisions. In Colossians 3:9 the Bible tells us to, “Put on your new
nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like
him.”
Judah Smith, lead Pastor of The City Church and Author of Jesus
Is_____: Find A New Way To Be Human, recently wrote in Relevant
Magazine, an article He titled “Stop Seeing Yourself As A Sinner; Christ's
invitation to a new way to be human”.
“Jesus gives us a new way to be human. In Jesus, and only in Jesus,
we are offered a new way of living… We can actually transcend
human nature. We don’t have to be subject to all our impulses and
urges, to all of our desires and passions.”
What struck me the most was his accurate description of what I believe is
happening to a lot of our generation that makes them so judgmental and
merciless towards someone trying to improve themselves. He said,
“The devil would love for us to believe that sin is not completely
defeated, that somehow our particular sin slipped through the cross,
and even Jesus could not kill it off. So now, we’re stuck with it. It
owns us. It defines us. It’s our pet sin, our inner demon, our personal
vice… I am a new kind of human. Because of Jesus, we have a new
humanity.”
PREACH JUDAH!!!!
Now, I’m not saying that a person’s past is to be ignored; Draya’s
past, just like everyone else’s, did at one time exist as a present state of
being, but she isn’t bound by it and neither should our perception of her.
Saul (Paul) was an angry murderer who threatened people and a host of
other damnable things, but he wrote thirteen of the twenty-seven books in
the New Testament after his encounter with Christ.
Draya’s bold idea that her uninhibited past is now deleted because
she has abandoned those activities is more Christ-like than our superficial
judgments towards her. All I’m saying is that the memory of your past is a
motivation to never go back to where you came from, not an identifier. Jesus
Christ died not just to save us from hell but so that we could become the new
creation Paul wrote about, and as one of the fiercest opponents of the Lord
who became God’s most willing servant, he would know.
No comments:
Post a Comment