An Open Letter to Hollywood and Girls Everywhere

Dear Hollywood,
     Congratulations. You've smartened up. Magazines and celebrities who use photoshop are being attacked for creating "unrealistic body image". Songs like Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" and Colbie Caillat's "Try" talk about just that. Positive body image is plastered across every billboard.  For that, I say thank you. However, let us not mistake acceptance as attack of the opposing and let us not mistake pornography as true beauty.

     Unless you live under a rock, you've seen that Kim Kardashian posed completely naked for "Paper" magazine. That in and of itself is a whole other issue for another post, however, there have been other things in the media over the past few months that have applauded women for things that are more hateful towards those who are not like you and less actually accepting people for who they are. Rihanna posed in a sheer dress a few months ago and she was applauded for her boldness. Beyonce posed in front of the word "feminist" in a skin tight body suit and everyone praised her for what she was doing for the modern woman. The Duggars wait until marriage to kiss and the whole world laughs.

     In my college career there have been so many movies that have come out about being world changers and rebelling against societal norms. The Hunger Games series, The Maze Runner, and Divergent are just a few. I'm not saying that these things are bad, I love all of those movies. However, they seem to prey on the desire that is within us to change the world. We are in a generation of people that believe that to be worth anything is to do or be someone extraordinary. With the internet making things viral in seconds we are living in an entirely different culture than we have faced before. The attack is now lessened on body image and is more on what you are actually doing. This is just as, if not more, damaging. This is a subtle attack. It's one that we've been missing for years, myself included.

     I am tired of subtle messages trying to make me feel inadequate. I am tired of the messages that try to make me feel like less of a woman for wanting to be a wife and mother. I am tired of girls wandering around with misplaced identities because being a Christian and knowing Jesus are equivalent to intolerance. Disagreement in beliefs is not always a judgement, but simply a disagreement. Who am I to judge? I am a sinner, saved by grace. Every breath, every movement, every word, every thought are examples of God's grace, not by things I have done, but by what HE has done for me.

     This letter is not to cast judgement on Hollywood. This is a letter of my heart's desire to see girls more than just survive. I've seen the hand of God work in my life too many times to keep quiet any longer. I don't want sheer dresses or skin tight body suits to be what makes me a woman worth respecting. I don't want to live in a society that screams equality, but ridicules you for disagreeing. Rick Warren said it best when he said, "Our culture has excepted two huge lies.The first is that if you disagree with someone's lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. Second is that to love someone means that you must agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don't have to compromise convictions to be compassionate".

     I truly believe that for me to best live out Christ in my life is to pour out His love. His love that is unconditional. His love that is full of compassion for a person, but not their lifestyle. Jesus was absolutely radical in the way He lived His life. He flipped tables in the temple. He saved a woman from being stoned by pointing out that they all had sin in their lives. He hung out with the outcasts and the hurting. He wasn't afraid to engage the culture without partaking in it. He held firm to Truth and had compassion on the people who did not know it.

     Hollywood, I am pleading with you to please stop. Stop making people feel inadequate for not having a world influence. Stop making everything about instant gratification. Stop equating feminism with man hating. Stop preaching acceptance and intolerance in the same breath. Stop and realize that the most effective world changers start with ripple effects. It is not those who pose nude for magazines or where clothes that leave little to the imagination. It starts, right where we are. In neighborhoods, in schools, in dorm rooms, and in relationships. Who people are and what they do has more influence than any movie or magazine. In a month, new rumors and new trailers will be release, but how I treat the people in my sphere of influence will last much longer.

     To any girls who are reading this and your heart longs to be a world changer. Know that I, too, have the same desire. I am sitting in my dorm room typing this letter to an imaginary "hollywood" figure because I have so much that I want the world to know. I have to stop myself often and remind myself that I will not fix anything on my own. I can write until my fingers cramp and my eyes droop shut, but unless we are mighty in prayer and walking with Jesus, it is all meaningless. I can write 1,000 books, but unless I am completely surrendered to Christ and His leading, it will not fulfill me. Do not believe the lie that to be worth anything you must do something or be someone extraordinary in the world's eyes. Know that you are so incredibly valuable that you were personally died for. God sent His only Son for you because He desperately wanted you to know His perfect love. You are famous in His eyes and He is relentlessly pursuing you! So the next time you start to believe that you need to compromise who you are to be loved or to be considered valuable, know that you already are. You are worth more than standing naked in front of the world. You are worth more than sex. Don't give yourself away to find value. Please know that Jesus adores you. He is utterly captivated by you. You are His Beloved Bride, His Warrior Princess. Do not let anyone tell you otherwise. Let Jesus change the world by allowing Him to change you. Surrender fully and you'll be in for a wild ride, but it'll be the best thing you have ever done.

With all of my heart,
A simple girl, loved by an extraordinary God.