We tell this to our kids all the time. The problem is, it’s not true and I can prove it. You see I wanted to be a rock star. When I was a small child we were pretty much sheltered from tock and roll. My dad was drafted a little bit after I was born, it was the Vietnam era and I think rock and roll sort of reminded my dad of the long haired people who were treating the returning soldiers so badly. It was fine until I approached middle school when everyone else new all the current music and I had yet another reason to be considered odd man out. Slowly I started to seek out the music, find what I liked an I got somewhat interested.
The turning point came on May 13, 1980. Some friends of mine were going to see this band called Rush and somehow, I’m still not sure how, I convinced my folks to let me go. It took me about 15 seconds into the Overture of 2112, to figure out this was what I wanted to do with my life. It makes sense if you think about it. The show was visual and thought provoking, they were even showing videos on the screen behind the band. There were explosions and the music was amazing. Throw in a healthy dose of teenage rebellion and the fact that we all know “Chicks dig musicians” and I was hooked.
I started to become a rock and roll fanatic. I could tell you everything about every band that was out. I started playing bass about a year or two later (when I could afford a bass and an amp), and a year or two after that I joined my first band. The graphic below was our first album cover.
Suspect Device. We were one of the new wave/punk bands that were all the rage in the 80s. I wanted us to be a metal band, but I figured we’d transition to that after we “made it.” Our first single was a lyric I wrote called Domestic Plastic. Did you ever hear it? Of course not, the song never made it past the spiral notebook I wrote it in. I was in the band for about three or four rehearsals, when they decided someone else would work better on bass. Up until a few days ago the album cover existed only in my mind. I wanted to be a rock star and I never got there. You see there’s a difference between want to be and can be. I wanted to be a rock star. I even pictured the life I would have, right down to the first album cover. I just never learned to play very well and wasn’t really able to sing very well. I had the want to be, but I didn’t have the ability. It was not my gift. I wanted it pretty bad and I tried pretty hard but it wasn’t my path.
Of the five guys in the band, I’ve lost track of two, one is a police officer and two of us are now in ministry (The other guy does still use his musical gifts to serve the Lord). As I look back on it, I can see that these are the roles God had planned for us. Now I supposed if I had tried really hard and kept at it, I could have become a passable musician, but who wants to be passable? I had a gift for art. I had a gift for telling stories and communicating. In developing these gifts (yes that took a lot of work, but it still doesn’t feel like work), I became what I believe God intended for me to be.
So can you be anything you want to be? My experience tells me, “no.” I think it’s better to tell yourself and your children that the best thing we can be is what God intends us to be and then work to find and be that. After all isn’t that what we’re meant to be?
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