Since Whitney Houston's sudden death Saturday night, the world's been fixated on replaying iconic - and now poignant - performances of her signature songs. What's stuck in my mind is video they've shown of one of her first performances and one of her last.
The early video shows her as a young girl, singing in her Newark, New Jersey church, belting out "just a little talk with Jesus makes it right." The other video was called "Whitney's last public performance." It appeared to be an impromptu duet. The song - "Yes, Jesus Loves Me." I thought, "Bookends of her life."
Clearly, Jesus was part of the life of this legendary performer whose singular way with a song brought people to call her simply "The Voice." But the effusive tributes and the flashbacks of Whitney's unforgettable musical mountaintops are punctuated with the disturbing images of her personal life spinning tragically out of control. Her "turbulent marriage," her battles with admitted drug addiction, the troubling pictures of a beautiful woman in disarray and decline.
According to Whitney's own public statements and numerous reports from the news and personal friends, things went very wrong in a life that lit up stages around the world. And none of us knows what went on in the heart and soul of this tormented diva. What we can know is what's going on in our own - in light of the life and loss of Whitney Houston. The big question that comes to me as I sort through this sadness is, "Where do you turn when you hit the dark crossroads?
We all get there. It's that point of desperation where the hurt is so great and the answers so few - and you have to decide where to turn. Many roads lead to that crossroads - a marriage that promised happiness but is delivering hurt...a soul-ripping tragedy...bad news from the doctor or from the boss...the betrayal, the breakup, the broken heart.
At the dark crossroads, you have to choose which way you will go - toward the darkness or toward the light. You choose the darkness when you go to drugs or drinking, a sexual affair or sexual fantasies for relief - a "solution" that only creates a lot more problems. It's darkness when you descend into the pit of harbored bitterness, anger or self-pity - emotional cancer that does nothing to the person who hurt you, but slowly destroys you.
I've found that there's one choice you make at the dark crossroads that's the difference between hope and despair, between a healed heart and a hard heart, between being free or being shackled, between character-growing choices or life-scarring mistakes. It's what you do with Jesus at the dark crossroads.
Some people find Jesus when everything else has failed them. Sadly, some people walk away from Him - thus abandoning the only hope of finding meaning and strength in the trouble. No one stays the same place with Jesus when the tsunami hits. You end up either closer to Him or farther from Him. You choose.
God's posted a sign at the dark crossroads. It says, "I have set before you life and death...Now choose life, so that you and your children may live...the Lord is your life" (Deuteronomy 30:19, 20). Jesus illuminated the two directions when He contrasted the devil's plans for you with His plans - "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they might have life and have it to the full" (John 10:10).
The song is so right - "Jesus loves me." And the one Whitney sang as a girl - "Just a little talk with Jesus makes it right." Especially if that talk is to tell Him, "Jesus, I need Your love - that love You showed when You poured out Your life for my sin on that cross. So Jesus, I'm Yours. All Yours." You can have a Jesus-upbringing, the Jesus-beliefs, the Jesus-words - and still not know Jesus.
But the dark crossroads is where so many have come to know Him - out of answers, ready for a Savior. Ready to give it all to the Man who gave up everything to rescue them. He promises that "whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). That's why the dark crossroads can be where the Light finally comes on.
If your life-journey has brought you to a dark crossroads and you're ready for some hope...if you've had a lot of Christianity but maybe missed Christ, I encourage you to connect with us at YoursforLife.net. You'll find out how to be sure you belong to Him from today on.