Here is what I wrote in response to posts on Christina Grimmie's social media sites that asked people to share "how Christina has impacted your life." These are points I often raise, but here I mention them in a more personal manner:
“Christina Grimmie is a GREAT soul.
“She has helped me in so many ways. I am partly homebound because of the ongoing consequences of long-untreated Late Stage Lyme Disease. Christina was/is a light shining for people who can't live a normal life, because it was clear that her great love saw the human value of everyone, and was open to the ‘unique human person’ that each has been created to be by God's love.
“I was (and still am) strengthened by Christina's great loving heart, even though I never met her personally in this world. But I still somehow feel like I have ‘known her’ as an important ‘friend’’ who has brought a new sense of beauty and courage into my life over this past decade. I have tried in many ways to express this in the series of articles I have written about her on my blog since her death in 2016. She has inspired me to see the goodness in life, even within my sometimes frustrating limitations, and to keep trying my best to use the gifts God has given me—to keep trying and not get discouraged.
“I am a Dad (and now a grandpa too). Seeing the way Christina reached out to and encouraged her peers helped me to see my five (then)-teenage kids in a different way, with greater compassion. She has given me hope for their generation.
“And, having been an active musician myself in my youth, I'm in awe of everything she did with her music—the brilliant piano arrangements, her ardent performances, her pioneering work on YouTube and all her efforts to share her music... and, then, of course that VOICE she had—wow! She was always improving, setting the bar higher for herself, taking risks. I can't express how much I have been enriched by her devotion to working with her musical gifts and all the beauty she created and shared with us.
“Above all, Christina's foundation for living her whole life, making music, and loving everyone was that she sought to do it for the glory of Jesus Christ. She didn't ‘push her faith’ but she lived and showed that He was ‘the Heart of her heart.’💚♥️💚 She has helped me to want to live more in this way, because she has shown that Christ makes it possible to have clarity, simplicity, and positivity even in the midst of a confusing and painful world. My life, our lives, have a meaning and a value—our search for beauty and goodness does not have to end in frustration. The One who creates us and loves us is stronger than all fear and evil and violence: stronger than death. Eight years later, Christina's life continues to bear fruit, her light—the light of Jesus shining through her—grows brighter.
