One of the world’s greatest guitar players was Seattle’s own Jimi Hendrix. It’s hard to fathom his influence on rock and roll and popular culture, especially when considering he died at the mere age of 27. A musical virtuoso and a brilliant stage performer, yet also a shy and sensitive man who faced challenges with substance abuse that eventually took his life.
Jimi’s last known spoken words were in a voicemail to his manager: “I need help bad, man.” However, there was also a poem found near his body called The Story of Life. In it, Jimi writes about Jesus. Though the poem appears to be influenced by the gnostic gospels found in Nag Hammadi (Egypt) in 1945, there are several beautiful phrases that show Jimi’s longing for the true Savior and His actual promise that this life isn’t the end of the story. He also seems to show his appreciation for those disciples who dared to share the truth as a beacon of light to a dark world.
The story is written
By so many people who dared,
To lay down the truth
To so very many who cared
To carry the cross
Of Jesus and beyond
We will guide the light
Jimi’s last stanza combines the realism of life with the confidence that there’s something after this life. “The story of life is quicker than the wink of an eye. The story of love is hello and goodbye. Until we meet again.”
God only knows where Jimi’s heart was. But you have to appreciate his faithful final words that love will have the final say and we will indeed meet again. We can be both inspired and haunted by stories of spiritual seekers who inherently know some truth about God but ran out of time before putting the pieces together. Truly, this life is just a mist, or a vapor, or a blink of an eye—and none of us know when it will end.
Please join me in praying for those family and friends in our community who don’t quite know what it means yet to have a personal relationship with the real Creator and Savior of the world. We pray for opportunities to walk alongside them, to point them in the direction of truth and light, so that one day, their love and trust in Jesus will be on their lips as their last words.