The Pursuit of Happiness

Last Saturday, I was busy reading a devotional about the devastating effects of death, when a friend of mine sent me a text on my cell. She gave me the surprising news that Whitney Huston died. I was shocked, to say the least. Most of my 20's I listened to Whitney's music. I considered her beautiful and talented. But when I became a born again Christian, I stopped listening to her music, and any other type of "secular" music.

As I sat that night looking at CNN, I was eerily reminded of two years ago, when I heard that Michael Jackson had died. Somehow, for some strange reason, I'd never really think that one day these people, Whitney Huston and Michael Jackson, and other celebrities and world figures that I had grown up with and gotten accustomed to, would someday die, and be no more on the music stage and the stage of life. Inexplicably, I'd always thought that the "king of Pop" and Whitney would be young and make music. I thought maybe I'd die and leave them here, looking and sounding the same as they always do. So, these two deaths shook me up quite a bit.

It also made me so sad. Whitney Huston began her singing in church, but chose to leave that environment and go into the world of music. She had the looks, the talent (at the height of her career her voice was phenomenal!) and the charisma to capture the heart of fans her age and younger. But we see that even though she had all that, and in turn gained fame, wealth, the love of fans and many awards, both for music and her acting, Whitney was not at all happy. I believe that it was because she had left the church, where the presence of the One who had given her all these gifts I had mentioned (looks, voice etc.) had been. She went out into the world. She had lost her way, and had left the 'spring of living water' and had instead chosen 'broken cisterns that had no water."

This brings me to this. As I watch her family, especially her 18-year old daughter, Bobbi Kristina, take the death of their loved one so hard, all I can ask was, "what did she gain from all this fame and fortune?" She may have gotten money and fame, but it seemed that she did not have the "true riches" that would have satisfied her. She got the love and admiration of fans and friends alike, but I wished that she had gotten the peace that she desperately was looking for, the peace that only the Prince of Peace could give, a "peace that passes all understanding that keeps (one's) heart and mind in Christ Jesus."  

I'm hoping that other celebrities and wannabe stars would look at these and other celebrity tragedies and learn from it. It has just let me realize anew that it is not what you have and who you are that matters. In the end it is Whose you are, and all that He gives to you, everlasting life, true peace and fullness of joy, and 'pleasures forevermore at His right hand."

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." 1 John 2:15 (KJV)