Living out loud

Pin It I met Steven Curtis Chapman a few nights ago. For those of you who do not know who he is, he is a Christian singer/songwriter that I have listened to ever since I was about 15 years old. I feel that he and I have been through a lot together throughout the years. We’ve shared some good times and have built some great memories. However, all of these memories are mine, and not his.

On Friday Steven and I were just hanging out, we were talking and I finally met his family. They were not what I had expected. I thought that this man, the one who’d written so many songs which had moved me throughout the years, was somewhere around perfect, however, after conversing with him I realized that this was not the case at all, in fact, he wasn’t all that different than I was.

You see, I had always looked up to Steven. Wow I’d think, If only I could sing like that or if only my life were more like his...his life is perfect. Well, that night I got a wake up call. His family does argue, they do have problems, and he struggles with some of the same things I do in my life. When I asked him about this he responded with, “There are fights in my own house on given days...there is a point when literally hell sounds the trumpet and Satan releases his demons to come and attack the Chapman family. We pray and we get a lot of others praying...It’s not enough to just pray; you must respond when God’s answer to your prayer...and invest yourself in things that don’t always come easily to you.”

He then went on, “You know, you and I are really not all that different. We both have things we are working on in our lives. The thing is you don’t see those things when you look at me…do you?”

I admitted that I really hadn’t.

“This is live we've been given, Jason.” He said next with a smile, “It’s made be be lived out...so live your life out loud.”

It was at this point my alarm clock sounded, and I was roused from my night’s rest. As I opened my eyes I realized that what I’d just experienced was only a dream, a lucid dream, a dream that did not fade from my memory...it was so realistic that it still is sharp and defined even now, days later.

This experience was a great eye-opener for me to realize that Steven is human, just like us all. The reason I say this is because I think that many of us have a tendency to look at those around us who seem to have “perfect” lives and fail to realize that they have their problems, struggles, weaknesses, and even moments of deep despair.

I feel that I have spent far too much time in my life thinking, “If I were only like what’s-his-no-face, things would be better.” It has been over the last little while that I have realized that this is not really the case. I need to stop comparing myself to others and their seemingly “perfect” lives and instead compare myself to myself. Am I a better person today than I was yesterday? Have I done any better? If the answer is yes, good for me; if no, then I need to work a little bit harder. The point is, we all need to live our lives for who we are…not for somebody else.

We all are given life and each of these lives are different, it is my goal to follow Steven’s advice to me and to try to live my life to the fullest...if there does come an occasional day when I feel like staying in bed and doing nothing, this is okay—I just won't do it all the time.

I want to live my life the way I want it to be lived...

living it out loud.