I Wanna Be A Rock Star

My Dad has '50s and '60s music. A lot of '50s and '60s music. I grew up listening to his collection at home and in the car; sometimes just in the background, sometimes at ear-splitting levels. Some of it I found as boring as my Dad undoubtedly found the Lawrence Welk bubble-machine music my grandparents listened to. Some of the music; however, I could really relate to. It had a raw edge to it like the punk and hard rock of my own generation. One of those early songs in particular came to my mind the other day as I was thinking back on my childhood dreams and aspirations: "Something Else" by the late Eddie Cochran. Cochran's music inspired a whole generation of punk and rock musicians -- his most famous song "Summertime Blues" was still being covered 30 years after his death by bands like the Ramones and Joan Jett.

Anyhow, "Something Else" is a fun song about a guy who sees a girl and starts daydreaming about how cool it would be to have her as his girlfriend. A little later, he sees a hot car and starts dreaming about how cool it would be to get the car so he could impress the girl and make her his girlfriend. In the end, he is standing at the girl's door; the car that is parked out front is his old jalopy, instead of the new convertible, but the girl is as beautiful as ever.

I can relate to that song. You see, I wanted to be a rock star (Okay, sometimes I secretly still do). I wanted to be that guitar hero sliding around on stage as thousands of girls screamed my name. Later, as my faith grew a little, I modified that dream. "Okay God, how about a Christian rock star, with thousands of good girls screaming my name?" Alas, it was not meant to be; being a rock star, even a Christian one, was not my calling. I know this for a couple of reasons: If ministering through music was truly my calling, I might have bought a guitar sometime before I turned 40. And looking back, I see that my motivations behind those fantasies were purely selfish. James tells us clearly that God doesn't answer "yes" to our prayers, if the motives behind them are flawed: When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

I now serve in a fun, but quite ordinary job as a computer programmer, and I am reasonably good it. My family isn't wealthy or famous, but is blessed to have a comfortable home, food on the table, and enough money left over to experience God's awesome blessings as we work and travel with the youth in our church. I take heart in Paul's exhortations to all of us, famous or anonymous, rich or poor:

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody. (2 Thessalonians 4: 11-12)

With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1: 11-12)

I wanted to be a rock star. Now, I just want to be in God's will... and maybe someday get good enough on that guitar to lead a campfire song or two. Oh, and like Cochran in the song, I did get the girl, after all.