what's your choice?

When you hear Katy Perry popping off delicious lyrics about jerks who wronged her ("I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf," she spits in "Ur So Gay"), it's hard to believe that at 15, she recorded a self-titled gospel-rock album (probably pleasing her parents, both traveling ministers) under her real name Kate Hudson. "Only when I became a teenager and was hanging out with friends was I fed, little by little, things from the outside world," Perry says. After moving out of the family's Santa Barbara home at 17, she mined her post-Bible-camp renegade years. The results? One of the Boys, an audacious, naughty album that sold over 2 million copies, owing in part to her Vargas-girl look. "When I descended from the ceiling in a giant banana [at the Grammys], it was a total Spinal Tap moment," she says, "and also my own little secret innuendo altogether." Ah, but she sometimes skips the innuendo altogether: "The best make-out song is anything from Grace by Jeff Buckley," she insists. "Or, dammit, everybody is talking about Kings of Leon and how [Only By the Night] is the best record to have sex to. It's so true."

Extracted from Elle July 09 No. 287 issue

what i'm going to write may offend some, as i'm going to talk about faith. and faith here refers to God, to Jesus Christ. i got pensive as i read the above text. it brings me back to my past - those wasted years, wasted time away from my Lord while i was having fun cos the world told you you only lived once, that the most important thing was to be happy.

Perry sounded so gungho, just like i was back then. you can ask me about mind-blowing sex; i'm no stranger to it. i wonder how it must've pained my ma and bro, to see me go from one valley to another. i cannot imagine what Perry's parents go through, if they read what their daughter's said. i wonder how it would be like, if me and Perry switched places. not too long ago, i would still be angry with God for taking so long to pull me out from the pit. i would think of all the peace and joy and blessings i'd have savoured had i stayed close to Him. of course, there's the pain i could do without, pain i brought upon myself. maybe, if given another chance to rewrite my life, i wouldn't want Perry's version anyway. or do most of us almost always go down that path once we reach that age? i forsook Jesus when i was a teenager. did we feel His love then? did we have conviction in our hearts? why did we choose the world and not hang onto the Vine? i honestly didn't know much then; i probably went with the flow so as to be normal or cool, whatever. my ma's not a believer of any gods but herself. what about Perry's parents who are doing God's work? i admit there'd been many occasions when i felt my ma was partly to 'blame' for my predicament today. i would attribute it to the fact that she didn't know His ways. but that's the old me thinking those old thoughts. i'm so grateful for what i've been bestowed with all this while. God has been faithful, never having forsaken me, and guiding me surely.

i don't ever want to fall outside of His light, ever. if i were Perry reading this, i wonder if i would say: oh you can say this now cos you've tried everything ("I'm still trying everything out.").

ok. fair enough. have you tasted darkness, Miss Perry? perhaps you have. i don't pretend to know for sure that i would choose Jesus over that outside world. i just know my prayer now is that He not let me run wild again, that i never forget how the darkness was like, to be apart from The True Vine.

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