what if THIS IS IT???

August 25, 2001 marks the date of the death of the very talented, beautiful Aaliyah Dana Haughton or just simply Aaliyah. Personal note, I decided I was going to have to fight Dame Dash (her "friend" at the time"), because I lovededed her. In my opinion, she was "All That". Baby girl was FINE!!!! All joking aside, what bothers me the most as it relates to her death, is that we saw her very last hours on this earth. She was shooting a music video, and BET was filming the making of the video. I find it extremely eerie to watch the video and realize that less than two hours after wrapping the last scene in this tropical paradise, her life is over.

 I get the same weird feeling as I watch the documentary on Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez in which we are riding along in the car as the vehicle crashes and she dies.

Or when I watch Michael Jackson's, This Is It. He is dancing around this stage and less than 24 hours, he's gone.

 I ask myself as I watched the final minute of Aaliyah's Rock the Boat video, what if someone grabbed her and said, Aaliyah, THIS IS IT. I won’t make a judgment on where Aaliyah will spend eternity, or anyone else who has passed on. Yet, I can't help but wonder WHAT IF someone had that opportunity to say to Aaliyah, Left Eye, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, or the man who suffered the heart attack today in the grocery store who I heard about on the news; THIS IS IT, DO YOU KNOW JESUS? Not just the celebrity, but the truth is I pass people every day and I can preach and do rap shows all week long; have powerful altar calls; see folks saved nightly, but that still does not compare to those that I pass that may not have tomorrow. You may be involved in your church, shout the walls down, but there are people who you encounter or pass by and for them, today may be their THIS IS IT moment. Friends, family co-workers, what if THIS IS IT? I heard someone say that because life is short, we should live every day like it's our last. That's the selfish, me first way to view life. I think the Christian perspective would be to live every day as if it's SOMEBODY’S last. Love people like their life depended on it. What if for them, THIS IS IT?