Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died today.  That makes me sad.  I know that he had a lot of issues, to say the least, but the truth is that he was one very talented man with an amazing career that spanned many, many years.

It’s odd that he died today for me personally because it was just two days ago that I started thinking about his music, for some unknown reason, and I went back and listened to a bunch of his old songs that I’ve got in my iTunes library.  I was listening to stuff that I haven’t heard in years and, amazingly, most of it stood the test of time.

I think Michael is a picture of what can go wrong when we don’t have people in our lives that love us and that can speak the truth to us.  If he had remained relatively normal I think our society would have loved him the rest of his life but he just seemed to get stranger and stranger as the years went on.  Nobody ever denied that he was talented.  He could sing and dance and entertain like few before him but he just seemed to drift off into a weirdness that eventually outweighed any other aspect of his talent or career.

I truthfully feel sorry for him.  I know that he was spiritual in a lot of ways and that he tried to find help in both Mormonism and Islam.  I just wish that at some point along his journey he had discovered a good, Bible-believing church.  I wish he had found godly friends that cared about him and the power of true Christian fellowship.  Most of all, I wish that he had understood how much God loves him and that he had had a real relationship with Jesus.

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson.