Posted by
Theophilus on Friday, February 09, 2007 8:39:12 AM
This morning, and all PM long yesterday, the news story of the moment is the death of Anna Nicole Smith. The former Playboy Bunny, top model, TV & media "star", troubled soul, lost her life yesterday in a hotel room in Florida. As one thinks about this sad story, one should be touched at the sadness of her life. She was seemingly exploited based on her looks, she battled drugs and excess, she obviously had trouble finding a suitable mate, she buried a husband and a son, and on and on. Now what is left is a big court case involving the estate of her late billionaire husband, and a tiny, innocent little baby girl who does not have a mother and no one seems to be sure who her father may be, and the press to pick through it all to feed our insatible appetites for tragedy and loss. What a sad state of affairs.
As I think of Anna Nicole Smith I think again of the Scripture verse, "What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?" So said Jesus Christ in Matthew 16:26. Anna Nicole seemed to have "everything" that the world says you need to have -- looks, money and fame. Yet in the end she had what? Nothing to live for; her soul was empty and as I think will be revealed in the autopsy report, she wanted to die and overdosed. How tragic. But, this happens all around us all the time with neighbors right in our own towns. Of course the media doesn't cover it, but there are multitudes of such lost souls. The answer has been given to us, life has presented itself, "For God so loved the world (the Anna Nicole Smiths, the Kurt Cobains, the neighbor beside us, you and me) . . ." Jesus says "I am the the way, the truth and the LIFE" (John 14:6); He came to give life, abundant life, whereas the enemy (the devil) comes only to kill and destroy.
I pray that we will get serious about spreading the message of hope and life to a world that is plunging into darkness.
May we lift up a prayer for the little orphan in this sad case, may we lift up our neighbors in prayer, may we pray for one another.