Excuse me for slaughtering the last name of the dearly departed loved one. The gift of mercy left me for a moment. But is there any doubt that Tammy was...well a little messed up? I mean come on, she didn't exactly display the kind of life that most people would want to live. She definately had her share of ups and downs. Truthfully, I could never really figure her out. Most people couldn't. Maybe that's why so many people followed her. Talk Show host, Larry King stated that when he announced that Tammy Faye would be a guest on his show he received over 200,000 e-mails. Now that's pretty incredible for a woman whose only claim to fame was her 30 year marriage to Televangelist, Jim Baker. But somehow she made a name for herself even though she never had a hit television show, didn't sell that many records and never had a best selling book.
Here's why I think Tammy Faye intrigued so many people. She was messed up! And in a wierd way there's a whole segment of our population that can identify with that. In fact, we have an insatiable appetite for people who are really out there...if you know what I mean. We almost like watching them suffer and then miraculously pull themselves up by their bootstaps and jump into the circus of life again. In kind of a wierd way we enjoy the drama. And so it was for Tammy Faye. She had life drama to offer people and not just big eye lashes! In fact, you never knew where she was going to pop up next. But she always did. In fact, she seemed thrive on the attention it brought.
On a spiritual level, Tammy Faye puzzled even the best of us. It was almost impossible to know what she really believed. Her life was filled with a series of contradictions and oxy morons. For example, she would seemingly disappear from the Church scene, then suddenly reappear with all the zeal and faith of her previous years. I'm not trying to be judgemental here or anything. I'm just saying, that she kept a lot of us guessing. And once again, in a wierd way, a lot of people could identify with that on-again off-again pattern. Strangely enough it seemed to represent what a lot of people typically goes through in their struggle to believe.
So your probably wondering where I'm going with all this. I guess I would just like to say that we're all messed up in one way or another. Afterall we were born in sin. We're a fallen race. Today we would call that being dsyfunctional. And then someone like Tammy comes along and puts it all out there with no inhibitions whatsoever. And we celebrate her life. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Tammy's way of life helped us see reality. This is the world we live in. People today are as messed up as they come. And because we live in such a messed up world, we need Jesus more than ever. Yes, even Tammy confessed her need for Jesus and we certainly can't fault her for that.
The good news is this: there is hope for the Tammy Faye's of the world. And if there is hope for the Tammy Faye's then there is hope for messed up people like you and me. So let's get a hold of the one thing that will unravel our messed up ways and conform us into what we were meant to be, Jesus!
Not as messed up as I used to be,
Bob
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