Love Story: Marvin and MaLinda Sapp

Today I went to the Homegoing Celebration for Dr. MaLinda Sapp, wife of Pastor/Psalmist Dr. Marvin Sapp. It was rather close for comfort, as I recalled what it felt like to sit in the front of the service for my godfather Apostle William Nichols.

What I realize more than anything else today is no matter what - no matter the length of time it takes, there is a culmination. Love never dies...

Even though we cannot see those who have gone on before, we (Believers in Christ) know that as sure as we believe in God and know He is real and exists, those we cannot hold close are not so far away. There is no distance in the spirit. I learned a little about a real love story today...a love story very similar to my godparents' story. And now I know what to pray for.

I am not just going to pray to be married. I am going to pray that God would grace me with a real live love story of my own.

Three things I learned today:
(1) Dr. MaLinda loved her husband deeply. She knew she would have to go and her first and last thought was for him and their beautiful children.

(2) Dr. MaLinda was a great mother. Her daughter Mikaila told her friend last week, "My mom was my best friend." How many children and teens can say that today? Her son Marvin II was completely speechless at the funeral when it was time for him to say something to the audience. And her baby girl, Madisson, asked the best question of all on the way to the service when she saw all the signs for the funeral (likely the funeral flags placed on the cars). She asked, "Why do all the signs say funeral? This is a celebration!" One thing I cry for even now is that these babies miss their mom.

(3) I have a giant in the faith to map my life after, besides my mother and my godmother.

Her name is MaLinda Prince Sapp.

Heartbroken

Yesterday,one of my she-roes passed from this world into the arms of our Heavenly Father. I admired Dr. MaLinda Sapp so much and being from Grand Rapids, Michigan, I had great respect for the work she and her husband were doing in my hometown. There are not very many people that are from my city that come back and pay it forward. They could have lived anywhere, but they decided to live in Grand Rapids.

Mrs. Sapp passed away yesterday morning from complications surrounding her battle with colon cancer. It is still hard for me to believe someone so vibrant and young could have a disease so deadly. Often medical professionals tell women in our age group not to worry about breast cancer, colon cancer, and any number of terminal illnesses until we get older. But lately so many women I know personally have been diagnosed with illnesses that middle-aged women even ten to twenty years ago rarely battled.

That doesn't mean a whole lot to me today.

Dr. MaLinda was only 43.

And my city, the people I know, the neighborhoods where we both grew up, the parishioners that attended Lighthouse (the church she and her husband, Pastor Dr. Marvin Sapp shepherded) are reeling from the loss of such a beautiful woman. Her children will enter adulthood without their mommy. Her husband is lost without the bone of his bone and the flesh of his flesh.

Please pray...

Inspiration in a Place That Lacks It

I am eight months into my new job as a foster care worker and I have never felt like I was making as much of an impact on people's lives as I am right now. I don't know if I will do this forever, but I know that my present employment situation is doing more than lining my pockets. I enjoy what I do, which every time I tell another person in the same department, they tell me I haven't been there long enough.

I never really respond to the negativity because, truth be told, I didn't enter this job haphazardly. I knew it would require much more than any job I've had before. I knew it would kill my pride. I knew I would be challenged. But one thing can be said about me - I never back down from a challenge. I might step back and take a better look, but I will never run from a challenge so long as God has my back.

I don't really interact with a lot of other people at work, either. At first, I felt bad about that. But now, I realize that many of the women (mainly women) I work with either (a) don't like me, (b) have their own things going on (cliques and whatnot) or (c) are too nosy about my affairs. I keep my distance from naysayers, and I do my job to the best of my ability. That's what I do to keep myself inspired every day. And I keep my fire lit - the fire on the inside that reminds me of the passion I had burning on the inside when I applied for this job.

I'm not perfect at what I do, but I am passionate. If nothing else, that is what keeps me walking in the door everyday.

What about you?