Why Kobe Bryant’s Death Matters

A man died.

A man and his daughter died.

A man and his daughter and a group of seven other people died.

They died in a helicopter crash.

Nine people in total.

Once alive. Suddenly gone.

And the world mourns.

The internet is saturated with articles, videos, pictures and tributes. Some focusing on the man. Some focusing on the man and his daughter.

Others talking about the additional seven people who also lost their lives that day.

And yet again others focusing on altogether different things, because they feel too much attention is given to those nine lives, when there are thousands who die daily.

And thousands do die daily. The Unborn. Infants. Children. Soldiers. Parents. Siblings. Friends. Families grieving. War. Famine. Poverty. Death.

It is happening every single day.

But why is much of the focus on these nine lives, and mostly on Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant? Why do they get most the attention when people are dying every single day?

Is it because he was famous and rich? Is it because he was more beloved by the masses?

Maybe because the way he died was more abrupt and tragic than someone who passes in their bed?

Is it because the fact that "ordinary" people die, gets old and doesn’t warrant news coverage?

Why?

The world came together to mourn these deaths. Regardless of background, race or religion people are expressing their condolences and sadness about the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna Bryant and the 7 other lives lost that day.

For some, Kobe Bryant represented a part of their era and generation, for others he might have been a role model and someone they followed over the years and looked up to.

Perhaps an inspiration. Significant for many reasons.

Many others however did not know him much, if at all, and yet millions share in the sadness of this unexpected loss.

We all have the natural tendency to identify with the things we hear and see, and most of the time we don’t know we are doing it.

For example, we see a beautiful woman and begin feeling anxious or frustrated. Why? Maybe because feelings of jealously arise, from thoughts that tell us we should look that way. Something in us is telling another part of us, that we don’t look like that, but that we wish we did, and thus are lacking something. Perhaps it suddenly triggers old feelings of comparison, which we felt when we were dating that guy who would comment on other women, and made us feel like we weren’t enough.

Thoughts of insignificance arise, thinking we are not enough and therefore feeling like we aren’t.

Or perhaps it’s the opposite. We see a beautiful woman and one part of us tells another part of us, that it’s not good to be jealous, so we decide to think something kind, maybe even saying it out loud in the form of a compliment; after all: that recent quote we saw on Instagram stated, that strong women support each other, and we want to be strong.

And now something in us tells the other part of us, to feel proud of ourselves, because we were kind and supportive instead of jealous and insecure.

Maybe it’s a car or a house we see, that we wish we owned, and now feelings of anger, resentment or doubt arise. Perhaps it’s pride that surfaces, because ours is nicer. Maybe we decide to kick out those thoughts and practice gratitude for what we do have, now feeling accomplished because we chose to do what we know to be right.

Thoughts leading to feelings, and feelings leading to more thoughts.

Regardless of our personality type, we want to matter. It may be for different reasons, but we want to be loved and for our lives to mean something.

We want to be seen, loved, appreciated, respected, accomplished. Known.

We identify with our thoughts and feelings, and the things we constantly tell ourselves as we judge and comment internally. We identify with our bodies, our jobs, our relationships, our accomplishments, and even with our desires and fears.

Yet somehow we’re often not truly aware or present in the moment. We don’t really know who we were made to be or why we are here. Just constantly thinking, feeling, assessing and commenting internally.

We hear about the death of someone famous. Someone popular and kind. Someone who achieved much, inspired many and left a great legacy; and it causes worldwide sadness.

What makes it worse, is that his young child died too, and they left behind a hurting mother, and three other daughters/sisters. Some of these children so young they might never remember much of their father and sister.

It hurts the rest of the world, even though most of us never met this man or his family in person.

Why?

Because we can relate! We can identify with it.

We are fathers and mothers. Sons and daughters. Brothers and sisters.

And we are afraid of dying. We do not want to suffer. We do not want our loved ones to suffer. We relate to the brokenness and mortality. We identify with the pain. We wonder why them? Why now?

Again others ask why the loss of these lives are mourned so much, versus the hundreds and thousands of lives that are lost every day. Why grief more about him than all the unborn babies? Human trafficking? Animal abuse? The wars happening around the world. And what about the other 7 people that died that day? Their families lost their mothers, fathers, spouses, children and siblings too, yet they aren’t spoken of as much in comparison.

Those who feel this way might feel this way, because they too are identifying with this tragic story, just in a different way.

The fact that one man could have such great impact on the world might awaken in them feelings of inadequacy, because they wish to be that important, to leave such a legacy. Perhaps they fear not being missed or remembered when they die.

Maybe they feel angry about the lack of attention around other important needs in the world, because they identify with their passion for these issues. They identify with their fight against injustice.

And those matters are highly important.

Maybe they have experienced feeling overseen or unheard, and they want their pain to be taken serious. Maybe they are a grieving mother, father, son, daughter or sibling, who lost a loved one and they are hurting; they feel like their world has stopped while the world keeps turning. Afraid to be forgotten.

Often we feel and think a certain way, but don’t really know why, because we are not aware and present. We stand up for what we feel passionate about, because we identify with that part of the story or that person.

We don’t ask where the anger or hurt is coming from. We just comment on ourselves and on everything around us. Moving through life, driven by false identifications, not knowing who we really are, as if asleep.

Much conflict could be resolved or altogether avoided if man knew himself and lived from a place of awareness, because fact of the matter is, both is valid! The grief about Kobe and Gianna Bryant, as well as the need to shed more light on the grief caused all around the world.

Every life is important!

Fact of the matter is many relate to and identify with his story. Even if unknowingly.

We want greatness. We want to leave a legacy. We don’t want to have to go through what his family now has to endure. We are afraid of losing our loved ones.

And the suddenness of his death, reminds us all of how short life really is. How no one is exempt. Not the rich, not the poor. Not the famous, nor the “unknown”.

We all must die.

That is something we all identify with.

And we all long to be seen and known, to be loved, to be remembered. So we see and we know and we remember.

We all want to have someone who loves us the way Kobe Bryant loved his wife and daughters. If we have to go, we’d rather it be with the person we love. Safe by our loved ones side. Safe in a fathers’ arms.

The world watches and mourns. And many, who had nothing to do with this man prior, now are saddened by this loss and what his family has to to go through.

So what do we do?

The world will keep turning. Life will go on. And most will discontinue speaking of this tragedy sooner than later, because that is how it goes.

New highlights or tragedies will take its place.

And the pain Vanessa Bryant and her daughters, as well as the Altobelli-, Chester-, Zobayan-, and Mauser-Family have to go through, will remain. It might hurt a little less one day, but life will never be the same. And sometimes part of the pain is that their world stopped, while the rest of the world seems to eventually forget and keeps moving forward as it always does.

And that’s scary! For all of us!

All we know as humans is this dimension. Death is an incomprehensibly huge and distant concept. A thing that, even though none of us are exempt from, we can’t grasp and have so many questions about.

Hard questions that find no answer outside of faith.

Faith - a meta science. Something above all scientific theories and measurements. Something that we can only take hold of by, well - FAITH.

Death is a lonely place, if you don’t believe in anything else. If there is nothing greater, nothing beyond.

If all you believe is based on what you see, then death is where everything you know, comes to an end. For you cannot see what comes after. When a body exhales for one last time, and the mere shell of a person is left behind to decay.

What more is there if not the things we cannot see?

The message of hope for today is that the things you cannot see, and the things you hope for, do exist and can be yours. THROUGH FAITH!

Hebrews 11:1 says that “Faith is the confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

If you believe in something greater than what you can see and know, that can give you hope. A confidence in something beyond what you can touch or comprehend.

It doesn’t end here.

Kobe Bryant’s death matters! The death of those 9 people matters.

It matters, because his family lost their loved one and they are now hurting and need hope.

It matters, because it could have been your spouse, parent or child.

It matters, because it could have been you.

If there is no life after death, then none of it matters and we are left with no hope.

And our sorrow has no end.

If there is life after death, than there is hope, and we have a chance to live a life of greatness.

To accomplish much.

To love much.

To leave a legacy.

When you breathe your last breath, your spirit will return to the One who made it, and you will have to give account for what you did with the life you were given.

Don’t let it go to waste!

God, the author of life, made a way for us to have life. Life everlasting. Life abundantly.

Here and now, and for eternity.

God can relate to our mortality.

He became flesh, like one of us - Jesus, the Messiah. He experienced death, and conquered it. He rose back to life and made a way for us to live forever too.

Jesus said He is the way, the truth and the life. He gives water that never runs out. Life everlasting (John 4:14). All you’ve got to do is ask. There is more to life, and there is more after life.

God can relate to our suffering.

No greater love has He, than the One who would lay down His life for His friends (John 15:13). To be willing to sacrifice your only begotten Son, to save a world that has turned their back on you. To be willing to lay your life down for those you love, while they spit in your face. God gave His only Son. Jesus, Son of God, gave his life to die a gruesome death. He suffered so we could be redeemed, comforted and set free.

God is also a loving Father!

That longing we have, to be close to someone who loves us, the way Kobe Bryant got to be close to one of his beloved daughters when his final hour came, that longing in us, can be fulfilled. There is a Father who loves you and who wants to be close to you (Romans 8:15). A Father who wants to love on you until you breathe your last, and even then - in death and beyond.

So while the world keeps turning, let’s choose to live lives with greater awareness, being present, alert, and using the opportunities and gifts we’ve been given - until we breathe our last.

Be awake. Be ready. Be alive.

It could be any minute. Live like it’s your last.

In HIS Love,

R. A. E.

"God is great! Don't get no simpler than that. You can know it all you want, but until you got to pick up that cross that you can't carry, and He picks it up for you and carries you and the cross. Then you know." Kobe Bryant