Jeff Conaway

It was just a couple weeks ago that actor Jeff Conaway died.  He was an actor whose main claim to fame was playing John Travolta’s sidekick, Kenickie in Grease and Bobby Wheeler in the TV sitcom Taxi.  After that he had a number of appearances over the years in minor TV series, movies and on stage.

What I didn’t know until I read his obituary was that Conaway spent a good portion of his life battling an addiction to drugs.  It seems that he started doing drugs way back in the ‘60's when he was a part of a rock and roll band.  To his credit, he realized that if he stayed in the music industry that he’d be dead in a year.  So he left music and turned to acting.  Unfortunately, somewhere along the line he developed back problems and the constant pain he experienced really worked against his efforts to be free of drugs.

The part that really caught my eye, hence the reason for this post, was something that he said in a 2011 LA Times interview this past January that resulted from his appearance on Celebrity Rehab.  “I got a lot of love from people, and when people stop me on the street and say, ‘Man, your story touched me so much’, it makes all this pain worthwhile, you know?  I don’t know where actors go after they die, but I know people who help other people have a nice place to go.  And I would like to go there if I can.”  Man, something about these words just touched my heart.  They brought tears to my eyes.

I guess it’s because in these comments I see a lost and lonely person, someone who’s struggling, searching and hoping.  Hoping he can go someplace ‘nice’.  Hoping that he can be free of addiction and pain.  Hoping that his life counted for something. 

I hope that someone told Jeff about Jesus.  I hope that someone told him about John 3:16 and the great love for him that sent Jesus to the cross.  I hope that he responded in repentance and faith.  I hope that he is in that ‘nice place’, Heaven, in the presence of God.  Only time will tell if he is. 

Lord, direct me to people in my life who are lonely, struggling, confused, hurting.  Help me to point them to Jesus and the cross, to the greatest display of love that the world has ever witnessed.  Help them to understand the opportunity that they have to be free - free from sin, guilt, addictions, and their past.  Help them to run into Your waiting arms of love.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.