A Candlelight in Central Park
By the time you get this issue of Release and read (if you do read) this little essay of mine, I will have celebrated my fortieth birthday. In my mid- to late-twenties, I had some romantic, highly exaggerated notions about an early death – taking off at thirty-three – joining the company of Mozart, Foster, Jesus, and other immortals who checked out in their early thirties. But this was a party I didn’t get an invitation to – a gang I didn’t belong in (me not being a genius and all). So, in Chicago I had my own party – celebrating the fun of being alive as opposed to the mystique of having an untimely death.
– Rich Mullins,killed in a car crash at 41 years old
But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire
And when I look back on the stars
It’ll be like a candlelight in Central Park
And it won’t break my heart to say goodbye.
Category: Quotes
Because we’re going through our lives, and we’re trying as hard as we can, and things just seem to always blow up in our faces, and we keep going, ‘God, God, why?’ We don’t know what he’s doing. So just let him do it. If you really believe he’s good, then let him do it. People always say, ‘I don’t know where the Lord is leading me.’ I always say, it don’t really make a whole lot of difference. The important thing is to be where he has led you to already. If he has led you into a marriage, then be faithful there. If he has led you into being single, then be faithful there. If he has blessed you with many material goods, then be a good steward of those goods. And if he has blessed you by allowing you to imitate his life of poverty, then imitate it with great joy.
It is eerie. Rich Mullins was one of my all-time favorites. Wept like I lost my best friend when I found out he was gone. He was able to articulate in his songs what I sensed in my spirit but never could put into words … God granted his prayer. Be careful for what we ask …
Great to hear from you, April. I didn’t get to know all about him until after he died. What a loss he was for all of us.