How Common

I'm not one to be star-struck over celebrities in the entertainment world. (theologians and authors are a different matter...) And yet I , as with many my age, have memories that run to a soundtrack of Michael Jackson songs. I was in High School when Thriller came out and most Saturday nights found me at the Roller Skating Rink where I awkwardly attempted to look cool skating/dancing to the music without falling down. Jackson's music and moves inspired those of my friends who actually could skate and dance. Watching MTV in the early to mid-80's guaranteed seeing Michael the superstar almost daily.

As the years passed Michael seemed to go from the "King of Pop" to the king of weird. His changing visage and pigment and the scandals that surrounded him made it easy to stand from a distance and despise him. Who needs this anyway? I'm a serious adult, mother and wife, and I have a life that keeps me too busy to concern myself with such things. Yet Michael was always an easy target for recreational derision. Then, last week the startling news breaks that he has died suddenly and a circus erupts as the world seems to go stark-raving nuts over the loss of a Pop Star. Can we just see some Real News please? Must we have wall to wall coverage of this one man's life and speculations over his death?

And yet.

I caught a clip on the News this morning of yesterday's Memorial Service. They showed his daughter crying as she told the world that she loved her Daddy and misses him with all her heart.

Suddenly I'm not so superior with my judgments from afar. Suddenly it all comes down to children who have lost a Daddy. Sure, he may have led a bizarre life and made some, well, a lot, of bad choices. But here is the cost, again, of living in a fallen world. Our sin-soaked existence leads us in all the wrong directions, though all of creation points us to our Creator. We are given gifts and talents and we clumsily misuse them. We have the blessings of families who love us, yet their very closeness makes them easy targets when our sinful choices splash over the rims of our own cups.

Michael was given talent and a loving family. Now he has died and his children are grieving the loss of their Daddy. Such pain is common to us all.

May I learn humility and clear wisdom from the Lord that I may not squander the gifts and talents that he has given me. May I learn to cherish those in my life who love me. And may I never take for granted the love that God Himself has lavished upon me in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, by whose life, death, and resurrection I am saved and given hope. And may I stay gently sensitive to the pain of those around me who suffer from the fallenness of this world in which we yet live.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. -Philippians 2:3-4