Don’t you find it hauntingly interesting that all of us girls were hit so hard by her death? I stood in front of the television last night and wanted to bawl. Then, this morning I honestly felt a heaviness of spirit about it as I looked over the newspaper. I was moved when I opened the blog and Amanda had already written on it. I thought, “Like mother, like daughter. She can’t get it off her mind either.” We are both really sensitive, I reasoned. Then, I watched all of you react to it and dialogued with my staff about their own responses. Do you know what I think? I think it’s possible that, as different as we may kid ourselves into thinking that we are, her tragedy tapped into something hidden in all of us. She hit a major nerve in the feminine system. Anna Nicole Smith publicly fought and lost the same battle of insecurity that you and I privately fight. Had we had money, access, and opportunity, no telling what lengths we might have traveled to feel a little better about our broken selves.
Untreated by Jesus, the true Lover of our souls, we will be insatiably self-destructive and utterly impossible to make happy. My friend’s mom used to say, “Sometimes we’re happy and we don’t even know it.” Life is hard. Danged hard. If we each know (really know!) again today that we have a perfect Savior who loves us perfectly in all our imperfections and that nothing can take Him from us, AND if we have a few fellow sojourners (sistas!)to encourage us in Him along the way, as challenged as we may be, we are the happiest people in this cold, hard world. Let’s spread a smile across our face and show it. Sooner than later, somebody’s going to ask us to share the hope that is in us.
