Photo Credit: https://twitter.com/christhebarker/status/813184048914898948
Some have been calling 2016 a terrible year because of all the celebrity deaths, the tragedies in Aleppo and elsewhere, and for some, the presidential election has added to that sense of tragedy.
However, I wanted to talk specifically about the celebrity deaths this year. It really seems as if every month this year we heard of another celebrity passing away and then the social media storm would start with people talking about how broken up they were to hear of the death. On Christmas Eve, I misspoke and said Bob Dylan when I was thinking of David Bowie, and now you know how important David Bowie (or Bob Dylan for that matter) was to me. But when Bowie died last January, my Facebook feed exploded with people who were expressing shock and sadness.
It happened again when Prince died… again when Gene Wilder died… again when Ali died… again when Carrie Fisher died… again when George Michael died… but strangely no one seemed to mention when Erik Bauersfeld passed away.
What? You don’t know who Erik Bauersfeld was? He was the voice actor for Admiral Ackbar! “It’s a trap!” Yes! Even he passed away this last year.
What a tragic year!
I hope you have picked up on my sarcasm because it was intentional.
The death of Erik Bauersfeld really makes the point for me that I want to highlight for us all as 2016 comes to a close. There are three things really that I want to emphasize.
Celebrity Is False
I tried to make this point just after the election ended, but it bears repeating. Just because someone is in the public eye doesn’t mean we know them at all. We don’t have a relationship with these people. These people didn’t have an impact on our lives. The public persona of that person is what made an impact on our lives. In most cases, it’s the carefully crafted, scripted caricature of that person that made an impact on our lives.
If you don’t mourn the death of Erik Bauersfeld, why would you mourn the death of Carrie Fisher? You were just as close to each of them… One of them, however, was in a recent movie you probably saw, and of course, that one was also a cultural sex symbol while the other was just a human being who did his work and lived his life. There was the illusion that one of them had a deeper impact on your life, but it was just an illusion. It was false, as is all celebrity.
Worse, the way we respond to celebrities (their life or their death) highlights our own selfishness. In fact, the way we mourn for celebrities often boils down to the fact that we wish they were still around on this earth to do things that please us!
Death Is Frequent and Normal… Celebrity is Becoming So
The second point I want to make is that 2016 is no different from any other year. Nothing has changed in the death landscape. In fact, to prove the point, I visited a few websites to get a list of all the notable figures who have died this past year. Wikipedia has an entire page devoted to it here.
I took the entire list from that page and I also took the list from this other site, and I calculated the average age of those who died. Would you like to know it?
The average age of death for these notable figures in 2016 was 76.5.
Just for statistical consistency, would you like to know what the average life expectancy was for 2016? 78.8.
And, for more consistency, if you go back to 1970 when many of these celebrities were in their prime, the life expectancy was actually only 71.
To finish the statistics, the overall life expectancy for popular musicians is actually 25 years less than the general population!
What does all that mean? Well, simply put, the deaths of this past year were not abnormal. Rather, we just knew about them more because celebrity is becoming more and more a part of our society and because the 24 hour news cycle is putting their names in front of our faces every chance it gets.
If you have been upset over the deaths of 2016, you are likely to be just as upset for the rest of your life, because like it or not, the older you get, the more likely it is that you will read obituaries of people you know… or think you know.
However, there is a solution, and it has nothing to do with praying that fewer people die. The solution is getting a better perspective.
Eternity Is What Matters
Jesus said:
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. — Luke 12:4-5 NIV
In saying this, he was making the point that death is not a big deal. To have the life leave your body is not that big of a problem. A much bigger problem is what happens to your soul after your body is dead. A much bigger concern should always be your standing before God and not your standing before human beings.
It’s a sobering realization that all the fake recognition and glory that is showered upon celebrities here on earth will gain a person nothing when it comes to the hereafter. Each of these celebrities who died in 2016 lived their life and now is facing the consequences of how they lived their life. Their souls are not dead. They are still very much alive as a soul, and they are still very much experiencing the justice or mercy of God depending on their relationship to Jesus, God’s Son.
This is the sobering realization. It makes no sense to mourn for the dead. Most mourning is really just selfishness. But there is one kind of mourning that is right and holy… it is the mourning over a life of missed opportunity, the mourning over the life of one who has been distant from God and never returned, the mourning over a soul that doesn’t know its savior.
The loss of a celebrity shouldn’t bring us down; rather, it should highlight for us the desperate and urgent need of every human being to know the saving grace of Jesus before their time is up.
Nothing about 2016 was abnormal in the death department, and that’s why we need to boost our sense of urgency.
Do you know someone who needs to know grace?
May we be people who are unstoppable at spreading the gracious message of Jesus in 2017!