What Robin Williams Taught Us In His Death

I used to wear the suspenders.  You know, the ones with horizontal rainbows.  (Back when rainbows didn’t have duel meanings.)  I used to separate my fingers; pointer and middle, with ring and pinky, and shake them furiously up and down with my cousin Kristy saying, “Na Nu Na Nu”.

As children, “Mork from Mindy” was a one of a kind t.v. show, one where you didn’t have to be cool to belong, you didn’t have to wonder the morality of it all….all you had to do is sit back and enjoy.

And with a man like Robin Williams who ingeniously took us outside our worlds, how can we help but grieve the brilliance of a man didn’t just “entertain us”, but opened our hearts in through child-like humor.

Williams was the “real deal” in a day where plastic facade are the epitome of Hollywood.

And we could grieve and go on to the next news making incident, being caught up in wars, and forgetting about the loss of a man that touched our world.  Or we can stop, reflect, and find the message without words that came from the death of an actor who impacted generations.

The thing about Robin Williams tragic death was that others didn’t see the suffering that too often hides in heroes.  Or, more fatally, they may have even saw it, but chosen to ignore it.

Because, let’s face it, in the world of profiles, platforms, seeker sensitives, and entertainment…we don’t want “real” but simply crave increasingly; grander, funnier, louder, bigger.

And it’s it these drives of the deceptive heart where “honesty” can be a like a four letter word.

Yet, Williams death has taught us something…

•  It’s o.k. to be small.  It’s o.k. to rest, and coddle, and tend the soul. As a writer, Robin’s message to me is that we don’t need to keep climbing higher; because at some point our balloons of grandness will eventually deflate and we need to know ourselves, love ourselves, feed our souls so that we can make it through those dark nights without the enemy whispering or entertaining the question, “I’ll never be good enough. Life isn’t worth living”.

• Guard our minds.  I have wondered that day, what Williams last moments were like. Did He feel old, unnecessary?  Did he feel tired, weary?  Did he feel washed out, replaceable, expendable, under-utilized?  Or did he just ache so long and so hard that the enemy, the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy had whispered one too many times, “Death is the only answer”? 

  And let’s face it…our biggest enemy is never in the pages of this life, never in problems, or other people…the biggest obstacles we face are those lies between the spaces of our ears.  That whispering unchained that can get away from us and take us to places we wish we didn’t go. 

  Oh friends, might we truly guard our souls, rest, find hope when towers of lies want to suffocate us and rob us from our dreams? 

• Value others. Who is in your life today?  Value them.  Who have you walked past, while caught up in your own issues or problems?  See them. Who comes to your mind and you know you need to call, write, text, or message them?  Do it now. 

  Too often, we think we have tomorrow.  Too frequent we think we can mend bridges, mail packages, love on, or give others what’s asked of us, tomorrow…When reality can be, today is the day they need it.  Tomorrow might be too late?

  Hold tight your loved ones.  Ask for patience when people try us.  Give sympathy, a needed ear when life wants to devour.  For, we may never know how thin of ice their life is really sitting on. 

  And who wants to be the thread that broke the camels back? 

• It’s time to take off our masks.  I have heard people judge Williams.  He smiled all the time.  He was talented.  He made us laugh.  How could he take his life?  Yet, Williams wasn’t ours to witness, watch, created to entertain us.  Williams was God’s.  And as God’s, he had a “thorn in his flesh”, one he warred with silently. Yet, don’t we all wear masks, sometimes?  To “How is your day?”, don’t we answer, “Fine”? Don’t we paint our faces, get out in public and play the game while inside there hides the tears of a clown?

  Isn’t it time we take off our masks?  Isn’t it time we stop laughing at the “funny guy” and ask, pry, dig deeper into the heart of other people?  And when they close up…shouldn’t we still love on them, offer grace, and be real anyway? 

  How might the world change if we really lived understanding, transparency breeds transparency?

• We all really only have one hope.  I am not too sure about you, but Williams is not that different from us, really.  Yes, he was a visionary, a dreamer, an extraordinary person who lived his God-given purpose.  But at the end of the day what he taught us was that he too was simply human. 

  And I am not sure where he was with God…but I do know, there is only one hope that never leaves, one author of our faith that can keep us…when we just don’t think we can go on any longer.

  Fame fails us.  People fail us.  Money fails us.  Even Hollywood deceives us….but a God who is the rock when all our thoughts cave in on us, is the One we can stand upon, always, for eternity. 

So, today friends, I challenge you.  Instead of grieving, dancing, or laboring around the issues of suicide, death, and loss that robs life and people we love like Robin Williams…How about if we heed his wife’s request, refusing to let death take one more thing from us? 

How about if we learn from Robin Williams and tend our souls, guard our minds, value those God has put around us? How about if we just get real, step down to earth, and put our hope in The One that even transcends eternity?

Let’s learn from William’s experience.  So that all the “Robin Williams'” in this life will find that small glimmer of light, when the world seems dark and the Author of Lies tries turning laughter….to crying.