SO SAD.....

I am upset and I am sad.  But mostly, for me, the death of Whitney Houston is just another wake up call --a reminder that life is fragile, fleeting, and that we are but a vapor.  Her music is part of the soundtrack for my early 20s--and when that girl sang, her face lit up!  Her music made me happy!  She, in her better days, was a charasmatic, joyful, vivacious human being.  The tragedy  is that she spent the latter part of her adult life struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, and not winning the battle. She was a sad and broken person. The cause if her death is as of yet, unknown.  But, the woman destroyed her body with drug abuse, and it is heartbreaking.  It is understood that her friends and family did all that they could do to help her, but she did not embrace that help fully.  I am absolutely shaken by all of this, and saddened, and I am praying for her daughter and family as they grieve. 

This is just another wake up call. Al Sharpton is calling for this to be made a National Day of Prayer.  We can choose to take that in a good way.  Sure!  Let's pray!  Let's consider who we are... What are we doing?  What is our purpose?  As a believer and follower of Christ, I have confidence in my purpose.  I am here to love and serve a living God, and to be a living testimony to His grace and mercy. I am to spread the gospel in what I say, how I say it, and what I do.  All this should be a reflection of God's love and saving grace.  My job is to love Him with my heart, soul, mind and strength, and  to love my neighbor as myself.  Although I do not do it perfectly, I am seeking to do this. I desire to do this.  I am praying to do this. I am purposing to do this...

I am the kind of person that is deeply moved by other people's suffering.  It crushes me.  I cannot bear it when people speak unkindly to one another.  I cannot stand it when people argue.  I do not like heated debates.  It makes me very uncomfortable.  When people grieve, I can feel their grief.  This is the way God made me.  I try very hard to turn this to an act of worship somehow, to pray hard and long for those that are heavy on my heart and mind, rather than just feeling the suffering.  But the truth is, when people suffer, I suffer right along with them.  Things move me.  And the honest truth is, I WANT to be moved.  As hard and painful as it can be to be ME sometimes, I would choose this enveloping compassion over apathy any day.  It can be a great motivator.  And I do  want to be motivated, and driven...towards that goal of loving my neighbor--my family, my friends, the person I pass in the grocery store. Anyone whose life passes through mine, whether in person or not. 

I do know that we only have this moment.  This second.  This breath.  This moment can be FULL of love for God and others! My choice to love will echo in eternity and so will a choice not to.  So what do I want to do with my moment?  This moment.... I do not want to spend it with negative thoughts and words.  I do not want to avoid difficult things, I want to face them with confidence.  I do not want my mouth to speak words that hurt, embarrass or tear down.  I want to speak joy, love and peace. I want to LIVE joy, love and peace.  I want the source of my strength to be known to others by the way I live. Not for my sake, but for God's sake, and my relationship with Him.

So, yes...today I am grieving for Whitney Houston.  She is one of God's creations.  God made her, and only God knew where she stood with Him when she took her last breath.  She matters, her family matters, and her life--like every EVERY life--matters. The sad choices she made in life, matter. The joy her music brought to so many, matters.  We are but a vapor....and we only have this moment.  Let's make this moment count...

 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”  As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.  If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. 

James 4:13-17