Sharon passed away this past weekend. Mel gave me brief details last night when he called me. If I remember everything he told me, her ex-boyfriend came up in the apartment and shot her. He also, apparently, had another girlfriend in the building who he was tryin’ to kill, but two maintenance men helped her get away. Dude sped off, got stopped by the police, got into a shoot-out with them and got killed by the cops.

Sharon was a Sigma Dove and eventually pledged Zeta in 96 at Alabama State.

I waxed eloquent on the ZPBS list, since this one’s been sitting with me all day in the back of my mind.

My LB Mel called me last night about Sharon. I still have my pic of me, her and Mel from B&W weekend 96, among others.

The messed up part is, I *JUST* saw her in Giant with a friend a little over a week ago.

Sharon brought me and my LB’s FOOD while we were on line. I was too thrilled to hear that after she broke camp from Bowie, she pledged and became a soror down at ASU. I hadn’t seen her in YEARS, though… and it was good seeing her in the grocery store last week.

I’m right pissed off about this. In fact, pissed off is a bit too light to describe the situation.

Reflecting on it between last night and today, I was (and am always drawn to) Psalm 90.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/index.php?search=psalm%2090&version=47

Verse 12 is most instructive, in light of all the other things in the entire passage: So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.

See, people who realize that their days are numbered (Psalm 139:16) are more apt to make every opportunity of the time they have in front of them on a daily basis. James 4:13-16 remind us ” Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”– yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” Likewise, Proverbs 27:1 echoed this exact sentiment hundreds of years earlier.

Ultimately, it is God who gives life and takes away, despite all of the sentimental mushiness that some folks try to pass off as theology. Job acknowledged this wisely, even in the face of his entire family losing their lives and the loss of his livestock (Job 1:20-22). Fast forward a few millennia to 1873 and that same fact was well engrained in Horatio Spafford as his ship sailed over the spot where his four daughters had perished not long before and he wrote the words to ‘It is Well With My Soul’. That same fact has repeatedly been brought to my attention over the years….. the death of my DJing partner back in the early 90’s, the death of one of my spiritual mentors and the death of Bro. Steve Morton (SP88 Gamma Gamma) in the late 90’s all remind me.

And if you didn’t know, they should serve as a reminder to you too. Too often, especially in the US, we have a tendency to act as though we have all the time in the world to do whatever it is we plan to do. Fact is, if you were 90 years old, would you still drag your feet, knowing that you have one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel ?

Perspective means everything. Some people say ‘I’ll do the ‘Jesus thing’ after I get myself and my family established. I’m going to have my fun now’. Fact is, if your days are numbered to 30 years and you’re 28…. you’re an old man.

Sharon’s family are in my prayers. This is a horrible tragedy. I take solace in the fact that God is a God of justice and the man who took her life, more than likely, now stands before a Holy, Just and Righteous God who will judge strictly, sternly and without partiality……….. and if he was livin’ like there was no such thing as hell….