Reflections of Whitney Houston's Life

Reflections on Whitney Houston’s Life

“And when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.” Luke 23:47

I hesitated to write about Whitney Houston’s death. Everybody has an opinion. I’m no different. I watched the home going service on TV like millions of others across the world. I remembered riding my bike in the basement as a little girl listening to her music. I was in her fan club. I tried to sing like her (to no avail). Her songs were the songs of choice for every fifth grade graduation class in 1989. While watching the funeral, I was moved by the words spoken about the life of one of the most gifted singers I have ever heard. I had my own opinions about some of he tributes. I felt compassion for Bobbi Kristina and Cissi Houston. I could see the hurt and pain of her close friends and family. I wondered about Bobby Brown and if anyone cares about how he is grieving. I wondered if Whitney was watching from where she is and what she thought about it all. And I wondered how God felt about it all. Was God pleased? Can’t say I have any answers to any of it. I wish I did. But death always makes us reflect on life. How ironic right? Sometimes it takes he loss of life to think about the life we live.
The morning of Whitney Houston’s funeral prayed for the family and friends and the fans who would be watching and grieving. I prayed longer than I expected to because things just kept coming up in my prayer. The death of a celebrity has a lot of implications. I prayed for those who wold attempt to demonize her in the media and focus exclusively on her demise and drug use. I prayed for those even who would elevate her to a status that forgets about her humanity and makes her out to be only a saint. Both are a part of her story, but neither is the whole story. All of who she was, including her drug use, contributed to the life that we celebrated on Saturday. And I think that is the hardest part to take.
We watch people we know and love make poor decisions and we judge it by saying that’s wrong or that’s right. We usually say it’s wrong because we can see that it will lead down some unfortunate path. We usually say it’s right because we believe that it will end favorably. But we do not know the whole story. And at the end of someone’s life, we often still don’t know the whole story. Because all of our stories are so interwoven that the end of my journey might be the beginning of someone else’s and vice versa. Time is not eternity. Time is only time. Time has a beginning a middle and an end, but the end of time is not the end of all. There is life outside of time, and that life is something we are all a part of in some way. And in that life is the presence and the will of God. And that life often helps to bridge the gap between the confusion we live in while we exist in time. Knowing that time is not the end of all gives us a hope for something greater and a peace when things are confusing in time.
When Jesus died on the cross, many people were confused. How could he be the savior of the world and die like this? Why didn’t he just destroy his enemies? Why did he have to die such a horrible death? Those who sentenced him to death ask other questions. How could he say that he was equal to God? Who did he think he was? Why doesn’t he respect us the way everyone else does? But the centurion who may or may not have watched Jesus live, had a chance to watch him die. And while watching Jesus die, he made a bold statement. He declared that Jesus was righteous. He watched him be murdered in silence while people spoke openly against him. He watched him bless those who persecuted him. He watched him take the beatings of those who had so much hate in their hearts. And then he watched him hang his head and die. And in watching all of that, he came to a conclusion. This man was righteous.
I am not saying that Whitney Houston is on the same lines of Jesus, God forbid. She did not live a life sin free and lay it down to pay the price for my sins. But what I can say about Whitney Houston, in spite of all the other things, I can confidently say, that surely she was a righteous woman. In the bigger picture of eternity, God used her life to speak to many people and give them hope, joy, peace, encouragement and happiness and looking to him. To hear the sentiments of some many of those who knew her personally, you could hear that their lives were touched by Whitney in a way that even pointed them to God. If not during her lifetime, then in her death. The name of Jesus was probably said in a meaningful way more times on TV yesterday than in the last few months. People who have not stepped foot into a church in years, went to church yesterday. And I wonder if that makes them want to go today? I wonder if that makes them pick up a bible? I wonder if that makes them curious about their own life and what value they bring to others in this world? I wonder if they started talking to God again?
We can explain away death sometimes by simply saying that God has a plan that we can’t understand and leave people in a state of anger and confusion. We can over spiritualize death and only talk about heaven or hell. We can try to make life about this linear journey we are all on called time. But the truth is, our lives are all a part of a bigger picture that we will never be able to understand until we get to the next part, and maybe not even then. Even our mistakes are a part of this bigger picture that God is using to point people towards Himself. God will get glory out of our lives no matter what. There will be life that comes from Whitney’s death. We may never know about the person who decided to live because she died, but I know that there will be at least one. Someone tuned into the voice of God yesterday for he first time. Someone asked a question about God for the first time in a long time. And everything that is a part of our lives plays a role in this bigger picture of eternity. How much we choose to suffer in it is where our choices lie. God will use our good and our bad, but in the end, God will get the glory because God dwells outside of time. Our end is not the end. But at the end of our lives, can people look at us and say, surely this was a man/woman of God? Is there something in our lives that points people to truth, no matter how many mistakes we have made? Do we love others in spite of our mistakes?
I think that is what I learned from Whitney Houston’s life. No matter how many mistakes she made, how many bad decisions we believe she made, no matter how far we think she has fallen, I still believe that she was a righteous woman. Because in truth, our righteousness has nothing to do with us anyway. If we are believers in Christ, we attribute our righteousness to Jesus alone. Not ourselves. And the Spirit of God will use us anyway. And I pray for her daughter and mother and all of those she left behind and maybe even disappointed during her lifetime. I pray that they take comfort in knowing that she was made righteous not by her works but by the work of Christ. And I pray for those who continue to look towards other people to give them their sense of righteousness. I pray that we all learn to look to God first and the work that He did to make us righteous while loving those who dwell in time. I pray that the lives of people like Whitney Houston remind us that we are all human beings whose lives are interwoven into the tapestry of eternity in ways that we will never understand in time. And I hope this helps us to judge less and love more. To criticize less and pray more. We cannot control what other people do. We can only love them to the point of making better choices and even then, they may not. But above it all is the Spirit of God going through it all with us and helping us to see more than just this linear world. I pray that her family and friends saw eternity yesterday and don’t get stuck in time. Because I don’t think time will ever explain the bigger picture or be able to give them the comfort the need. And I pray that the rest of us don’t get stuck in either time or eternity, but recognize the value of both. The lessons from time and the glory of eternity. May we all trust in the righteousness of God and love one another enough not to bring each other pain.