Whitney Houston’s death made me so sad. I obviously was not alone. People around the world grieved over the death of this pop icon. She sold 170 million recordings. She was 48 years old.

Martha and I spent some of Saturday night listening to some of her great hits.  “I Will Always Love You” once was voted the greatest love song of all time. Her rendition of the National Anthem at the Super Bowl is still talked about. Could anyone match her voice range?

We also watched a YouTube purportedly of her last performance. She sang “Jesus Loves Me,” a fitting way for anyone to end their life and career. But there was nothing of the “old” Whitney in the latest performance. Her voice was low and raspy, supposedly destroyed by cocaine and marijuana. She admitted to drug abuse. Late in her life she exhibited bizarre behavior.

In 2002, she famously told Diane Sawyer: “The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy.”

Aren’t we all? Isn’t that the problem with human beings? We think that we know best and go about doing what we think is best for us. Then, we find too late that what we think is best leads to sadness and destruction.

Isn’t it also amazing how we think we were made for pleasure. We look for one thrill after another. Someone once told me we are being amused to death. When you look at Whitney Houston, you begin to believe that it is true.

But, here is the question? Were we made for pleasure or were we made for God’s pleasure?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, written in 1647 in London as a teaching tool, begins by saying the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. This is the real problem for human beings. We worship ourselves and seek to find pleasure in some way apart from the God who created us and who made us in His image.

Very few people had the money, fame, or adulation of Whitney Houston. I probably have no idea what she experienced on the inside or in the wider world. I simply think that it is sad that God has so many blessings that so many people miss.

May we resolve again to live credibly before others and help them to know a God of love and blessing.

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