Discovered at age 19, her life suddenly became a display to the entire nation. Can you imagine the whirlwind your soul must go through? Have YOU ever had something come out of nowhere and blindside you? It is such a huge change, that it can be very difficult to navigate through it. Such it was with our friend, inspiration, and encourager, Whitney Houston.
As she continued in her interview, I was so impressed with her transparency, her direct, sometimes raw honesty. How many celebrities have you seen do that? Something.....SomeOne much bigger than her caused her to do this. You see, when God has reached down and pulled you up out of the muck and mire and put a new song in your mouth (Psalm 40:2-3), you get the case of the "can't help its" (Acts 4:20) and you can not stop telling your story....because it is not a story about you, but a story about God's love.....it's a story about redemption. A story about the fact that He loved you so much that He would not let you go. You were His. He died for you. He loves you too much to let you go.
Redemption. We throw that word around a good bit in the Christian circuit. But what does it really mean? The best way I have heard it described and now describe it myself is in the context of Chuck E.Cheese. You know, you go to this place and there are all kinds of games. You must buy tokens, play the games, and try to win tickets. Then, you turn in your tickets and "redeem" your prize. Now if you are like me, every time I have taken my children into Chuck E. Cheese, they get their eyes on like this HUGE stuffed giraffe that they want. Now this giraffe has no place in our home....it won't even fit in our car to get it there! I mean it's HUGE! And underneath is a card that reads 4,892 tickets. Right.
So we spend about $10 per child and get about 25 tickets. A far cry from 4,892. My kids, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, must settle for a jelly bracelet underneath the counter in the front. Anybody?
Do you just feel sometimes that after all you've done, after all of the grace you've perused upon, after all of the absolute rejection you've given your Heavenly Father, there will never be enough tickets you could earn to get yourself back in good graces with God? Do you think that if you brought God your life all filthy, scared, wounded, messed up, and damaged, that He'll say "sorry, you're just too far gone"?
Well, Whitney Houston, me, and countless others can tell you "absolutely not!" You see Jesus Christ gave all the tickets you will ever need to save you. He is the only One who had, has or ever will have enough tickets to redeem you. God, because of His love, turned in His Son, Jesus Christ, and redeemed you. God said "Here is Jesus, I want my child right there." He picked you.
Whitney Houston, me and so many others have gone through tremendous adversity in our lives, even as Christians. We somewhere along the way were deceived by the deceiver, the devil, and this slow and sneaky liar slowly but surely stole from us the truth about God's love, His heart towards us, and His reasoning for allowing things into our lives. So in brokenness and humility, we drag ourselves back to the ticket counter and say "Here I am, Lord. I turn in my addiction, my coping mechanism, my drug of choice to numb the pain, my pride, my selfishness, my stinky attitude, my "dumb sheep mentality" that went my own way; here it is. Please, redeem it." And God doesn't bash me or scold me. He just simply says, "I bought you a long time ago with the tickets of Jesus Christ. I am passionately in love with you. You are my prize. You are my joy. You are my delight. I'll take all of that stuff and give you back the abundant life that I originally desired for....you will just need to walk with Me....just walk very close to Me, and stay close....real close."
Tonight, I applaud Whitney Houston for her openness to share her story of God's redemption, and for giving praise where praise was due on national television. God redeemed her life, and she made sure people knew it.
How about you? Do you need to bring yourself to God for the first time? Have you not had enough tickets and you need to accept the tickets of Jesus' death as payment for your sins? Will you allow God to turn Jesus in and get you, his wonderful child back? Or maybe, you've been a Christian a long time, but somehow you woke up one day and realized the slow erosion the enemy has done to your heart and mind. Will you just bring the broken pieces of your life back to God and allow Him to mend your heart?
Thank you, Whitney, for sharing your life with others and offering them hope that their lives too can be redeemed by their Father, Friend, and Redeemer.
Just drop at your blog. Great post
I watched it too with my mouth open. It is so rare that you see stars of that magnitude praise the only ONE who is worthy. I have also been touched lately by David Robinson's speech at his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. How refreshing to hear that there are still those in the forefront of the media who give credit where credit is due. Thanks for this post!