Sharing Scripture — April 9, 2022

During last week’s Oscar ceremony, we watched Will Smith destroy his reputation in real time. Now we have the opportunity to observe his journey toward rehabilitating his name.

Immediately following the on-stage incident, public relations professional Aaron Mays shared with the media several steps that Smith needed to take to rebuild his brand. Since Mays offered his advice, Smith has already followed through with several of these suggestions.

After gathering his people to do a damage assessment, Mays first suggested that Smith should immediately contact Chris Rock to express his concern and remorse over the assault. Since Smith has issued a public apology, we can assume he has also privately apologized to Rock.

Mays also believes that Smith should put together a legal team just in case Rock eventually decides to press charges.

The next step is to prepare for the fallout. Usually, the best course is to issue a well-crafted public apology, which Smith has also done. Unfortunately, Smith’s first public statement was his acceptance speech after receiving the Best Actor award for “King Richard.” That extemporaneous address landed with a dull thud for many people.

Mays reports that the best way to repair his reputation will be for Smith to express honest, authentic remorse and publicly outline a plan to correct his volatile behavior, which with time could reassure producers that Smith is safe to employ. At the moment, it seems that the actor is sincerely remorseful and is working on preventing anything like this from happening in the future.

Nevertheless, many wonder if Smith will lose movie roles over this. Only time will tell.

When Adam and Eve destroyed their perfect life in the garden, they devised a plan to address their sin—cover their transgression with fig leaves! That, of course, did nothing to undo the damage. Only God could come up with an effective rehabilitation plan. The plan of salvation not only restores our access to God’s eternal kingdom and reinstates us to our previous standing in the eyes of heaven, it also begins the work of character restoration here in our lives today.

Connecting: What is your first response after you mess up? How has that worked for you?

Applying: Chris Rock is not without fault in the Oscars fiasco. His joke about Jada Pickett-Smith’s alopecia was in poor taste, and some consider it cruel. What advice would you give Rock as he moves on from this unfortunate situation?