Houston Derek St. John went to be with our Lord on a rainy Tuesday afternoon, November 5, 2013, as the result of tragic car accident.
Houston came into the world as a gift from God to Bishop David and Theresa St. John and his older brother Austin on October 2, 1996 in Kansas City, Kansas.
Houston’s day was revolving around one of the things he loved most – musical theater. He was excited to be auditioning that afternoon for the musical at Shawnee Mission West where he was a junior. And that evening was to be a dress rehearsal for his role as Tarzan for Christian Youth Theater.
Houston was a natural entertainer and brought crowds to their feet with his magical voice, his electric stage presence and ability to bring the stage to life. He was a beloved member of Chorale and Madrigals as well as the theater department at Shawnee Mission West. He played on the football team as a freshman and planned to play again next year as a senior.
Houston was also actively involved in Christian Youth Theater, Immeasurable Productions, Stage Right Performing Arts and Music Theater for Young People. Houston was a 2013 finalist for KC Superstar, but was unable to perform because of an emergency appendectomy.
But even more than theater, Houston loved our Lord, Jesus Christ. He never had an unkind word for anyone and was a source of strength for his friends. He often told them that the Lord has a plan, we just don’t always understand what it is. Houston wanted to be a successful entertainer so he would have a larger platform to tell the world about Jesus.
Houston was actively involved in the ministries at his father’s church, Journey Church of Lenexa. The members of the congregation were treated to frequent displays of his love of song and dance. It was impossible to see Houston on stage without feeling his infectious joy.
Houston had no sense of direction and without a GPS who knows where he would end up. He was always smiling and wanted other people to smile, too, so he made sure to have a practical joke ready at the drop of a hat. He had a gift for making a somber situation less dreary. Even as he grew up, he never lost his child-like joy in simple things like Halloween.
Houston will forever be missed by his parents, David and Theresa, his brother Austin, Austin’s fiancée Crystal Dowling, the love of his young life Maggie Marx, many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. In heaven he joins his paternal grandparents Rev. Edward and Lovell St. John and his maternal grandparents Charles and Jean Pritchard.
Today I received an e-mail from CYT aking Tom Sawyer ticket holders to please wear their HOUSTON shirt and/or button to the play this week-end. My daughter, Carly is new to CYT, so we did not have the priviledge of knowing Houston. I googled his name and it brought me to this site.
WOW! You can just feel the love and longing and how deeply Houston connected with people. He's still connecting! He has given a spark to each and everyone who he spoke with, hugged, sang to, danced with, shared his life and journey with--including those who are just meeting him for the first time (like Carly and me).
You have the priviledge of taking that spark and growing it into a bonfire of Spirit to honor Houston, to praise God! Do something Houston would do today. Tell someone that you love them. Throw a football. Laugh. Listen to a song that reminds you of him. Be the best you can be. Say a prayer and thank God for Houston St. John!
They say there are going to be stages in your life as you grow up that things change.
Moments that everything around you no longer appears as what it used to be.
In my seventeen years I have experienced a lot. I have found myself dealing with a lot more than I still believe that a girl like myself should have had to deal with. However, I am a firm believer that if He brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it. And everything affects everything. I am who I am today because of everything that has happened to me. Things all the way from being homeschooled growing up, to picking up the biography of Amy Charmichael in the 8th grade, to waking up this morning to go to work.
But reader, the way I viewed the world changed on Tuesday, November 5th.
Rather, I should say that everything changed for so many people on that Tuesday. Yet I still don’t quite know what to make of the tragic, and drastic events in my life and in the lives of many people that I love on that awful day. The day the sky cried for more reasons than the forecasted precipitation.
Life is so temporary, reader.
Yet I am not here to necessarily talk about November 5th, but rather the day before. The Monday. The last day I ever saw him.
Oh reader, how wonderful he was.
I woke up that morning and told my journal about how excited I was for the rehearsal that night. I went to French class and I barely listened to Madame Vandertramp or really any of my other teachers. I lived that school day really only to get to the end of it so that tech rehearsal for CYT’s Tarzan would be closer to me. Life was so taken for granted that day.
Whenever I walk into The Bell Center after being absent from it for a long time I always take a deep breath in. To me, this is the smell of show week. This is the smell that connects me to memories of many shows performed over and over and countless relationships formed and strengthened over all the time I have spent in CYT. I always stand in the hall and cherish the moment of being in a place I call home once more. A place that, especially now, means more to me with every passing day.
That sounds silly I know but I am also a firm believer that sometimes we have to sound silly to show how we truly feel.
He was the first one to see me when I walked in. He flashed me a big smile and came over and wrapped his arms around me tightly. Oh reader how I wish I could go back in that moment just one more time and be inside of a hug of his just one more time.
Now I want you to know something.
I don’t want you to think I am over here pretending that this person was my best friend. YES this person truly loved everyone he met and he truly did care, and yes he was totally and completely my friend, yet the reason that all this has affected so many the way it has is because of the way this man lived his life. I have never met a single man in my entire seventeen years {which I know is not a long time, but to me it is} that loved Jesus as much as he did. I never met a single man with such genuine compassion, humility and desire to strive after The Lord as he had.
The night went on, that November 4th. At the end of it, I found myself sitting in the theater listening to notes and here he came, tripping over all the people sitting down the row to come sit in the empty seat next to me. His exact words were “Leslie, I love you, I’m gonna sit next to you.” He then proceeded to be the silly boy he was and stick his “perfect hair” in my face and asked me if it smelled good. To which I of course told him it smelled like a meadow and he laughed and said something about being “swaggy” that I can’t remember. Soon after that I found him staring off into the distance with a twitterpated expression on his face. I leaned over to him and asked “Are you thinking about Maggie?” {his absolutely wonderful girlfriend} and he nodded, winked and then I was the one laughing.
And that night when I walked off the stage to leave, he ran after me and hugged me. I said to him, “I’ll see you tomorrow,” and he smiled and said, “see you tomorrow.” As I walked away I called over my shoulder, “I love you!” and I heard him say, “I love you too!”
Reader, I can’t tell you how glad I said that to him that day because whether or not he was my best friend, I really and sincerely did love him.
The world was so “fun-and-fancy-free” that day and it had been all before that. I am not saying that the world is no longer beautiful or that everyone should walk around depressed because we are all eventually going to leave this planet. What I AM saying is that life is so short reader and that the next day this realization came crashing down around all of our ears like a ton of bricks.
I find myself all the time since then sitting in the car in the parking lot of The Bell Center, listening to the song Blessings by Laura Story and talking to him. Usually crying. It makes it so much easier that I know exactly where he is. I literally have no doubts in my brain that my friend went directly to heaven to be with Jesus. It’s just hard to try to figure out why it had to be so soon.
There are so many things that we will never understand because it is all part of God’s HUGE plan and we can only see the small part that we are so close to.
He has taught me so much about life even through death. {Kind of like Jesus}
And I know he wouldn’t want us to be sad forever. Oh reader…he WOULD want us to be sad he is gone, he was snarky and wonderful like that, but he wouldn’t have wanted us to be sad forever. And life is so short reader.
Cherish it.
Tell the people who mean something to you that you love them.
Cause you just never know.
Today is the first anniversary of Houston's car accident. For weeks and months after his death, we had the privilege of hearing so many new stories about Houston that, for someone like me who only knew him on an admiration/acquaintanceship level, it felt like hearing all of these amazing stories allowed me to know him a little deeper each day.
Today, I find myself eagerly wishing to recall more events and experiences with him and coming up short. In some ways, that makes it even more painful. I have five children who I love dearly, and for each one of them, I can point to some touching experience I had with them within the last week. So many precious memories with them, and the new memories just keep on coming.
I desperately want that for all of Houston's family and friends. I wish the St. Johns had a year of new memories and stories with Houston in 2014. It pains me to think about this. Every memory of Houston's inspiring character and joyful laugh will be at least one year old from now on.
I'm not sure what I intend to say about it, really. It would be nice to finish by saying something comforting, but nothing comes to mind at the moment. I dunno. I'm not normally at a loss for words, so I guess there's a big part of me that doesn't want to end a post without saying something meaningful... just... it's not coming. Sorry.
