You Love Me Anyway

I was watching a recorded episode (results show) of American Idol that aired on Thursday night and they played a clip of one of the mentors Jimmy Iovine who had this to say: "God mass produces billions of people, in my opinion too many, but in the case of Whitney Houston he stopped everything and made one by hand; he made an extraordinary human being and that's why its so difficult for these girls to sing these songs". I am not cherry-picking what the guy was saying or taking what he was saying out of context, he was just saying that the girls didn't slam all of the songs out of the park because they were singing Whitney's songs and there will never be another Whitney. I am not taking away from her God-given talent but I have to disagree with him.

I believe that God stopped and took time with each one of us and that we are all just as special as Whitney Houston. We all have our own gifts, talents, and strengths that God blesses us with. God saw fit to put her in the position to share hers publicly. God has never and will never mass produce anyone or anything. We are all hand-made specimens of his splendor, his wonder, his mercy, his grace, and we are to be used for his fulfillment and his joy. I think that mankind tries to mass produce things for convenience and greed but not God. Even with identical twins, they have slight differences in their physical appearance and are definitely different in their personality.

I think all of God's creatures make mistakes and have inherent flaws that we cannot help. I think it shows God's mercy and the fullness of his love; he created us, knowing we would sin, knowing we would smite him, and he loves us in spite of our flaws. It is infuriating to me that so much publicity is put on the deaths of celebrities and you hear about them non-stop. I feel sometimes as if I cannot even mourn the losses in my own life for all of the celebrity drama being shoved down my throat. Michael Jackson died - who allegedly had a fondness for young children and drugs. He was the "king" of pop and made differences in the music world and will always be remembered, but he's dead. Let his family grieve in peace. I feel the same way about Whitney Houston - she had a drug problem and overdosed. She had an amazing gift, but in spite of her gift, her weakness killed her; the drugs killed her. Let her family grieve.  Its hard enough losing a mother, a sister, a friend, a daughter, without having the constant reminder of her everywhere you look. I ache for her family. I know how it feels to have the loss but on the flip side of the same coin, I ache for the families with the losses that you don't hear about. The ones that don't make the news. I am not trying to slam these celebrities, I am just saying that even though they were and forever will be idolized in the media, they were imperfect people. We are all imperfect people.

At the end of the day, we are all human and to say that one life is worth more than another simply baffles me. The price Jesus paid for all of us was the same - the life of his only son. All it took was a single drop of blood. We are not all the same individually, God never mass produced us and a "mold" never existed. We are all drastically different in our gifts, our talents, and our personalities, but we are all equally priceless in our worth. The best part is, the price has already been paid. The point is - everyone is unique, extraordinary and absolutely special in their own way, you just have to find your gift -- your "voice" if you will: I've found mine blogging. Through this journey and what I've gone through personally in the almost two years is I have to find myself and who I am supposed to be. Once I realized I didn't have to live up to everyone else's standards just my own. The only acceptance I needed was from Jesus and he loves me the way I am; flaws and all.
The last few months, God has become real to me; Jesus' presence has become increasingly evident in my life. For so long he was just someone I have heard about my whole life and we would ritualistically go to the little white church down the street and sing about him and teach the children about him and I was just going through the motions.. but now he's something tangible, reachable, and real to me. I cannot wait to see what he has in store for my life.


You Love Me Anyway - Sidewalk Prophets

The question was raised
As my conscience fell
A silly, little lie
It didn’t mean much
But it lingers still
In the corners of my mind

Still you call me to walk
On the edge of this world
To spread my dreams and fly
But the future’s so far
My heart is so frail
I think I’d rather stay inside

But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me
How You love me

It took more than my strength
To simply be still
To seek but never find
All the reasons we change
The reasons I doubt
And why do loved ones have to die?

But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me

I am the thorn in Your crown
But You love me anyway
I am the sweat from Your brow
But You love me anyway
I am the nail in Your wrist
But You love me anyway
I am Judas’ kiss
But You love me anyway

See now, I am the man that called out from the crowd
For Your blood to be spilled on this earth shaking ground
Yes then, I turned away with this smile on my face
With this sin in my heart tried to bury Your grace
And then alone in the night, I still called out for You
So ashamed of my life, my life, my life

But You love me anyway
Oh, God… how you love me

You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me

You love me, You love me
You love me, You love me
How You love me
How You love me
How You love me