If Jesus and you went to school together or if he was your neighbour and you knew his potential you'd think he died before his time.
You'd lament about the impact he would have made if he were still alive, the many more he would have healed, the numbers he would have reached with his message.
We never like to see a good thing end. We never like to see a life end. Maybe because it reminds us of our mortality. That if it could happen to one, it could happen also to the other.
I didn't need to meet Goldie to feel like I knew her. The scary news of her death leaves me as cold with sadness as I would feel if I had met her at all. This comment on Bella Naija this morning shows the mixed feelings people had about her persona-
Yet Goldie thrived. Even though she projected a persona we were not used to, which earned her harsh critics and bemused fans, it was to her credit because it made her different, unique! And even that IS admirable!
Perhaps her loudest impact yet is the lesson she leaves us. That what you do with your life still is your choice. Obstacles, critics and even personal flaws don't have the power to make that choice for you.
When we look at life we realise that life isnt necessasarily the reward of those who know how to use it. If not Jesus, Steve Jobs, Pastor Bimbo Odukoya, Pastor Akin, Goldie Harvey and the departed we know would be living.
But if these same people were alive they would keep doing their thing. Goldie would have woken up and continued to shop her reality show" Tru Friendship" with her best friend, Denrele. She would have continued to tweet about the Grammy's to her fans. She would have continued to live HER best life.
There is a comfort in that.
Time may only have presented her with better technology, greater opportunites to expand the impact of what she was doing but she would still have been doing the same things.
There is a lesson in that.
Do what makes YOUR life worth living. Do it everyday. Do it while you are still living.
Jesus fulfilled his purpose, everyday he lived he preached, healed and did the works that the father gave him up till he died. Young! At 33. To us, that would be dying "Before his time", but in the books, he completed his life, he said "it is finished".
So the matter is not time, it is what we do with the time we've been given. Of whatever lenght it is.
We can live fulfilling lives everyday doing the things that are important. That's what the wise do when they realise they are living on borrowed time. They don't do everything that takes their attention they do the things that matter. As Rick Warren says in his book "Purpose driven Life", there is no time to do everything but there's time to do what's important. Prioritize.
In a sense we die every day. Sleep is a type of death to activity and awareness of life. When we go to sleep we do not mourn that time has passed and darkness will hinder us from doing more . Instead we willingly embrace our beds and retire from our labour. I'll take it further and say that death like sleep is rest. Rest from all our doing in the day. And it is sweeter when we have done that one thing we are proud we did.
Everyday we can do the core- follow peace with ourselves, with God and with man. Do well whatever our hands find to do and make the most of our lives in every way we can so that when sleep comes, we can Rest In Peace.
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I've got no words to express my sadness. I could see where she was headed. But in all, God knows best.
ReplyDeleteR.I.P Goldie.
Word! An impactful life is not determined by its length but by its content...
ReplyDeleteWell, this is profound. True, we may have wished her to live longer like Jesus' three years seeming too fleeting to accomplish all. But thousands of years on, we are still believing, still spreading the word. And He does LIVE in our hearts, doesn't He? Legacy or Living, which is more important?
ReplyDelete