Legendary You

My birthday present from Kevan today was the new Superchick CD, Reinvention. Their last batch of songs were so good they decided to put them on another CD, remixed - meaning with more bass, more wiki-wiki action, more special effects. It was fun to listen to on the way to work this morning, and even though it made us miss our exit, it also boosted my rock-star-girl-power attitude. Made me want to take over the world... wearing hot pink Converse.

It has some great songs, and classic lyrics like: "You need that boy like a bowling ball dropped on your head, which means not at all/ You have too much to give to live to waste your time on him" - which I have used in dating counseling on a number of occasions. But I think my favorite lyric on this album is: "Be true, be legendary you." I think a lot of people minimize the "just me" mentality, as though being "just me" is boring or unimportant or unimpressive: "I can't do that - I'm just little ol' me." Rebellious teenagers and some "alternative church" people of my generation think of "just me" as an excuse to be lazy and irresponsible: "That's just who I am," they say (a bit too defensively) when confronted with the pathetic way they are wasting their time. Why can't "just me" be something we rise up to like a challenge, something we strive to achieve, something we can be proud to confess?

In my U.S. History class yesterday, my outline included a lot of the "Legends of the 1920s" like Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhart, Langston Hughes, Louis Armstong, and Gertrude Ederle. They were people noted for being "the first" or "the most" or "the best" in their fields. Last year I read a book about the legends of Christian history, from the Apostle Paul, to Joan of Arc, to Charles Edwards, to Amy Carmichael, to Jim Elliot, to Keith Green... people noted for courage and faith and love that impacted and changed the world in small and big ways. What about the legends of 2010? Would you and I go down in history as legends in our time? What would we be remembered for?

The other day I was listening to Chris Rice's album, Past the Edges, and the beginning of his song, "Power of the Moment" he says: "What am I gonna be when I grow up? And how am I gonna make my mark on history? What are they gonna right about me when I'm gone? These are the questions that shape the way I think about what matters..."

I want to live large. I want to leave a dent. I don't care if it's local or global, or if it touches one person or one-thousand, but I want to make a difference somewhere, to someone. And I want that difference to have eternal implications... I want my change to be in shining the Light a little brighter, moving people a little closer to God, making his love more real and personal to them. I want to be the workmanship God designed for his good purpose, and I want to be that masterpiece in the most beautiful, powerful, useful, inspiring way I possibly can. I want to be legendary me.