What a difference a week makes! It's so true that seven days without prayer makes one weak. Not that I have abandoned prayer this week, but the opposite I've been praying even more fervently. Last week I blogged from sunny Key West on change and how change is a process and not a single event. I wrote that blog entry before getting word of two deaths that would affect the remainder of my stay in Key West and the upcoming week.
Mr. John B. Smith, lifelong educator and administrator passed away last Saturday afternoon. Mr, Smith, or BBQ as he was known to many within my native Greenville, NC, was a friend of my father's, my mother's 8th grade math teacher at C.M. Eppes High School and was my prinicipal at Elmhurst Elementary School and E.B. Aycock Jr. High School. Mr. Smith was a man of the community. He served both his community and church dutifully, without recognition nor thought for himself. In fact, Mr. Smith is one of the reasons that I am a teacher today. His daughter Tiffany and I were high school classmates and still talk on a regular basis after having been reunited through Facebook. After I learned of Mr. Smith's death, I immediately phoned my mother, who was equally shocked as I was. I logged into Facebook only to see a litany of RIPs to Mr. Smith and words of sympathy and condolences to Tiffany.
Three hours later, I was at dinner with friends when we had gotten news of Whitney Houston's death. I never met Whitney Houston but always loved her music. I even have her 2009 comeback CD, I look to You. I felt connected to Whitney, because we share the same birthday, August 9. She is eleven years my senior, but I felt that I could relate to her on so many levels from her mountain top experiences to her valley low moments of vulnerability. I honestly don't think that there is a Whitney Houston song that I do not like. Sure, some grew on me quicker than others, but isn't that always the case? The Preacher's Wife is one of my all-time favorite movies, alongside with The Color Purple. While addressing his congregation regarding Whitney's death, Bishop T.D. Jakes said. "Sometimes when you're a celebrity, people forget that you are a person. Whitney is somebody's daughter and somebody's mother. Hearts are heavy and they need to be healed. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, what it is like to be gifted and tormented at the same time?"
Think about it. We all have gifts and talents, some more prominent than others. And yes, we are tormented and conflicted by something that seems as if it will not let us go, but God is our help. He is our strength. When we go through the changes of life and come through on the other side, we may find ourselves saying that "I didn't know my own strength," as Whitney sang about on her last CD. Truth be told, it was the strength of God moving in and through us to get us to this moment.
As I think about ironic connections, I reminisce on the fact that during Christmas of my sophomore year of high school, Tiffany Smith Bryant gave me my favorite Christmas gift, a cassette tape of Whitney Houston's single "I'm your baby tonight". She knew how much of a Whitney fan that I was even at the age of 15. As I write this, both Mr. Smith and Whitney have been eulogized and physically laid to rest. I thank God for the lives of Mr. John B. Smith and Whitney Elizabeth Houston. Their impact will never end. I pray that the Smith and Houston families will realize the strength that they have, as they hold to God's unchanging hand.
God's Peace,
Karsten
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