Last night, literally just a few moment after I posted my last blog about the God Shaped Hole, I heard the terrible and tragic news of the suicidal death of Kenny McKinley. I know that many of you have never heard of Kenny McKinley. He was a 23 year old wide receiver for the Denver Broncos of the NFL. He was just beginning his career, in his second year of his promising career. This young man's career was just beginning, but was on hold due to two separate knee injuries. None of us know what was going on in his mind, but I have to question how much inner pain and emptiness there was in his life that would lead him to take his own life. He had money, having signed a contract as a rookie worth almost two million dollars. He was a flamboyant persona and seemingly everyone liked him and they say he had an electric smile. Friends were around him... money was his.... yet life was so empty, that he took a gun and ended his life. How tragic.
When I read of his death and what team mates and former team mates and couches were saying about his life, I found myself asking, "what was missing?" Now understand, I never knew this man, and in no way am I presuming to judge that he never knew God. I simply have no knowledge of whether he did or not. Remember, I had just written the blog on the God shaped hole... and I got to wondering... had this man tried to fill this hole with other things? Perhaps he thought money would fill that hole, but now that he had money, the void was still there? Perhaps he was trying to use football to fill it, and for a season had been successful, having had a brilliant high school and college career, but now that he was in the NFL he was having a struggle with injuries and the void may have felt bigger than ever. (I don't know... I'm just thinking out loud.) I wonder... did anyone ever tell Kenny about Jesus Christ?
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