One of these things is not like the others...

It is amazing to me how many people die every day. I mean, obviously, there are many people who are born every day, and therefore many will also pass, but I was just browsing through some obituaries today and found these:

A professor at the University of California at San Diego who was one of the world's leading investigators of new therapies for Alzheimer's disease, died in a plane crash near Borrego Springs, Calif. He was 62.

A former conductor and first violin player in the Boston Pops, and the managing director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra died in Boston. He was 82. Through the years, he donated more than $13 million to the orchestra and millions more to other arts endeavors in Boston and in Palm Beach, Fla., where he had become a resident in recent years.

The oldest living man in the U.S. and the world's oldest WWI veteran died just a few weeks shy of his 111th birthday.

Former Playboy Playmate of the Year who has struggled with years of substance abuse and personal plagues died of yet unknown causes in a Hollywood, Florida hotel room hours after witnesses saw her drinking profusely to the point of not being able to stand or walk on her own. She was 39.


Let me start by saying that I don't think Anna Nicole Smith's (or Vickie Lynn Marshall as her parents named her) life is worth any less than these other people I listed or even my own. I believe she was made in the image of God, just like all of us. What perplexes me is that as I sit here with the television on, I am still hearing reports about her death, days after the actual event. I didn't hear one word about the scientist, the conductor, or even the world's oldest WWI veteran. I had to search for news of those, and even then it wasn't easy. I'm so confused about this thing we call celebrity, and why so many people are fascinated by it.

I do realize we're in a world of 24 hour news. When it isn't the war we see, it is personal wars. When we're not seeing bombs going off, we're seeing Hollywood elite getting bombed. When we're not hearing how high the casualty count was for the day, we're hearing how high the actors, musicians and playboy pinups can get on whatever substances they choose. And as if we don't have enough issues with personal relationships in our society, we need to hear the ins and outs of every relationship the 'stars' have.

I think all of this reminds me that the people that God has placed around us are so precious. How many of those that we come in contact each day feel like they aren't even worth talking to? How many people feel like there's nothing left to live for? While I'm seeing headlines of people I will never, nor ever care to meet, there are people I pray for, worship with and live next to hurting and dying on the inside--sometimes even on the outside.

I have a new goal each day--make someone feel like a celebrity: to let someone know they're worth the attention and the time--not because they are a scientist, a conductor, or a centerfold, but because they are made by the Master. Every obituary carries more than just a story. It carries a lifetime of stories. I'm just not convinced we spend our time focusing on the right ones.