The year was 1996. I was 9 years old and for Christmas that year I received Celine Dion’s album Falling Into You along with a pretty sweet karaoke machine. If you don’t know who Celine Dion is, she is the greatest singer of all time (in my humble opinion) and you might recognize her from the theme song of Titanic, My Heart Will Go On or the original Beauty and the Beast Classic, Beauty and the Beast. The karaoke machine came with a blank cassette tape that you could put in the cassette recorder and record yourself singing through the microphone. My parents (and siblings) probably regretted that purchase for the remainder of the decade. I sang with closed-eyes, mouth wide open, and great conviction in my heart. I was going to grow up and be a famous singer just like her. I hit every high and low note and sounded just like Celine…or so I thought.
If you’re one of the unfortunate people in the world like me who is completely tone deaf, you might have also had the unfortunate opportunity to hear a recording of yourself singing. I would describe the sound as a mixture of a cow giving birth and a cat dying a slow and agonizing death. It’s a devastating blow to realize at the age of 9 that you are, in fact, not going to grow up to be a famous singer. I needed a new dream…I needed something that I could grow up and be exceptional at.
Time has passed and even though I still like to belt it out when I hear Celine Dion come on the radio while I’m alone in the car, I have (for the most part) moved on. Yet my quest for finding something I could excel at has never gone away. With every new job or venture, I am left with this nagging feeling that I just want to find that one thing I was meant to do with my life.
It has taken the greater part of 30 years for me to realize this one fact that I think all individuals, moms and dads, husbands and wives need to hear: You are exceptional…because you are you. That over 7 BILLION people exist in the world and not a single person out there is an expert at being you…except you.
I didn’t believe this for a long time. And then I became a mom.
I will tell you the truth…You’ve probably heard some women say they couldn’t wait to grow up and be a mom. Yeah, that wasn’t me. I couldn’t wait to be a wife…that’s true. I always felt like my life wouldn’t have purpose until I got married and although being married does provide me with a lot of great material to write about and although being with Chris does give me great joy in life, that has largely been untrue. And while I always envisioned my future with children in it, I couldn’t actually say it was something I thought would give my life deeper meaning. You don’t know what you don’t know, I guess.
But if you’ve ever had the chance to comfort a baby’s tears in only the way you can, or felt the warm nuzzling of a peach-fuzz covered head in your arms, or had a little boy’s brown eyes look deeply into yours when he says, “I lub you mama,” you know it is true. Or maybe you’re not a parent, but you have another unique roll to play that only you are equipped to do. The truth is that we spend so much of our life looking for the deeper meaning in it all, wasting time trying to imitate and duplicate the lives of others, wondering what we were meant to do when the truth is–we’re already doing it.
Maybe my “claim to fame” won’t be revealed in my generation, but maybe it will be in the next. Imagine being the parent of Billy Graham who has led thousands, possibly millions, to the Lord through his preaching, and knowing that you prayed over him when he was a young child…that he would grow up and do wonderful things with his life. Or how it will feel to be the parent of the child who grows up to cure cancer, knowing you gave that child their first chemistry set and ignited a passion for science within them at a young age. Perhaps we’re not all created to be great by the world’s standards and stand on a stage accepting trophies and awards in glamorous fashion, but maybe by doing exactly as you’re doing right now you will be part of someone else’s greatness. And maybe that should be enough.
My grandfather was an electrician. He owned his own electric company here in our small town and when I drive past that old vacant office of his even today I feel pride in my heart. He died several years ago but I see some of his character traits, such as his intelligence and attention to detail, passed on to my younger brother and even within my three-year old son. My grandmother was a mom and on the side did the bookkeeping for my grandfather’s small business. He and my grandmother raised four children, one of them being my mother. My mother and my father both retired just last year…my mother retired from teaching and my dad retired after working for nearly 40 years at Georgia Power. I’m sure my parents and grandparents alike wondered at times if they had missed a greater calling on their lives. Maybe being an electrician or a teacher or a mom or a bookkeeper or a warehouse manager didn’t feel all that exceptional sometimes.
But let me tell you a story about four redheaded children that came along a little later. The oldest son, my older brother, is perhaps one of the greatest preachers of the Gospel my generation will ever know. His ministry has undoubtedly led hundreds of others to the Lord and has eternal implications. My parents prayed over him as a young boy, that his life would be greatness…and it is. My younger brother is a computer engineer, and arguably the smartest person I’ve ever met. He, no doubt, got a lot of his brains from my grandfather. He now works on programming for one of the largest television broadcasting networks in the world and his job literally impacts millions. Greatness. My younger sister is a speech pathologist at a local elementary school. She literally helps little children learn how to talk. I know there are weeks when the days run together and she leaves wondering what it’s all for especially after she watched our mother pour herself out to her students for all those years…but one of those children might just grow up to be a preacher. Or President. Or Celine Dion. Her life has purpose…it has value. She gives a voice to our next generation.
Being uniquely you means you get to be a thread in the great tapestry God is weaving for all generations. Some of us (I’m still holding out a little hope here) will accomplish that through our singing by inspiring others, yes…others through raising up the next generation of leaders and innovators…and some of us will do it simply by being in the right place at the right time, doing something that may seem to have little meaning at all–in the moment–but years later will be a part of a bigger picture that we could never have imagined in our lifetime.
You might be wondering about that fourth redheaded child. I look into my children’s eyes and I know that my life has value. Over 20 years have passed since I received that first CD and karaoke machine. But sometimes while standing next to me in church my husband will lean down in the middle of a hymn and lovingly whisper in my ear, “You sound just like Celine Dion.” We’ll both smile…and I’ll remember that even though that’s not exactly true, I am exceptional.
And so are you.
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