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.

The Dowry Revival Part III

The Dowry Revival Part III - This Time I Will Praise The Lord

“She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, "This time I will praise the LORD." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.” Genesis 29:35 NIV

Ok. So the last two posts I dealt with Leah and her knowing that God had blessed her with something valuable to give to her husband, then also seeing that what God gave her was not enough to force him to love her. This time, I will look at how Leah changed her mind through that whole process.

Leah had seven children by Jacob in total, six sons and one daughter. She was extremely fruitful. In that day, being fertile was a sign of blessing from God. Except Jacob still loved and favored Rachel over his first wife Leah. After giving birth to her youngest son, Judah, Leah stopped having children and came to a powerful revelation. She decided to change her tune. Instead of seeking to gain approval from a man who was not loving her back, she decided to simply praise the Lord. This implies that all of the other births she was seeking to do something else, namely, praise herself for being fertile or gain the attention of Jacob, or something other than shifting her focus to God. But it was after she gave birth to Judah that she decided to do something different. And then she finally stopped having children. It was as if there was a revelation that God was trying to give her, that took seven births for her to get. And when she got it, the lesson was over.

Imagine all of the pain that she had to endure to get to a point where she finally looked to praise the Lord. All of the times where her body was being used to incubate another human being, who she hoped would be the answer to her prayer to have Jacob love her. All of the hours of labor she had to endure for each child. All of the pain she had to go through to watch the man she wanted to love her spend his time in the arms of her sister. All of the nights she probably spent crying her eyes out, wishing for someone to love her. And time and time again being disappointed. But once she turned her attention away from Jacob and turned it towards God, it all stopped.

And we know Judah for being the lineage through whom Jesus was born. Judah means “praise”. It was in Judah that the world would later be blessed with King David. It was in Judah that our Savior was born. Judah is known for turning things around. Or in other words, praise is known to turn things around. Not so much that your situation, itself, will be different. But in the sense that you will no longer seek the approval of men, and will be satisfied knowing that God is enough. Praise helps you to see things differently. Praise gives you new eyes. Praise helps you to bring a halt to the pain of seeking after things that are not God. Praise can change the world. Praise did change the world.

I don’t know what Leah’s praise looked like. She just said that this time she would do it. What does your praise look like? For some, it’s a shout of thanks to God. For some it’s a dance. Some it’s a quiet spoken word of gratitude. For others its a poem or a song. For some it will be laughter. Whatever it means for you to praise God, then when you get to a place where you are able to do it with a pure heart, I will submit to you that the pain of trying to give birth to something that will manipulate the heart of another will cease. Everything you were trying to do to win someone else’s affection will seem pointless. You can’t change people. You can’t make them love you no matter how fruitful you are. Only God can change the heart of a person. It’s not your money, your children, your status, your body, or anything else that will force someone to give you the love that you greatly desire. Once we finally understand that, we will be free. And the fruit of that revelation will change the world, forever.