Stars and Legends

Blaze debuted at the Sundance Film Festival a couple weeks ago.

Director Ethan Hawke masterfully tells the story of Blaze Foley, a country singer/songwriter who had a lot of hard breaks, made a lot of poor decisions, and died too young – but wrote beautiful lyrics.

In one scene, Blaze and his wife are riding in the back of a pickup truck, dreaming about the future.

“You’re going to be a star,” she tells him.

“I don’t want to be a star,” he says. “Stars are selfish. Stars shine for themselves. I want to be a legend. Legends are after something bigger than themselves. Legends write and play for others. Legends leave something that lasts.”

Stars and legends both shine.

The difference is for what purpose they shine.

To be seen or so that others can see.

To seek to be served or to seek to serve.

To be self-centered or to be others-centered.

Neither stars nor legends, in the Blaze Foley sense, become such overnight. Each comprises thousands of choices in thousands of mostly mundane moments.

One such moment is before you – and before me.

Let’s make it legendary.

Shine Like Stars

Ten years ago, I was living in Colorado. I still think about that season of my life almost every day – the lessons, the memories, the people. Those months changed me. There are so many stories I could share, but I was thinking about one in particular this week.

One weekend, my friends and I went camping in the Rockies. We drove for what seemed like hours into the Rockies before finally arriving at our campsite. We unloaded our gear and laughed as we fumbled with our tents, trying to assemble them in the dark. We sang songs and told stories and talked about what God had done over our last few months together. After eating our campfire-cooked meal, we pulled out our sleeping bags and situated ourselves on the cold, hard ground. As my head eased onto my pillow, I looked up at the night sky. What I saw took my breath away.

Out of the dark sky burst a million stars. Without the ambient light of the city, they seemed to shine magnificently bright.

“Do everything,” wrote Paul to the Philippians, “without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.’ Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky, as you hold firmly to the word of life.”

All of my life I’ve wanted to fit in, to be a part of the crowd, to be, well, normal.

Looking at the stars as I lay on the side of a mountain I understood, maybe for the first time, that I’m not supposed to fit in.

I’m supposed to be different – not for the sake of being different, but for the cause of Christ. I’m supposed to live my life in such a way that, against the dark backdrop of a warped and crooked world, I shine the radiant light of Jesus.

If you’re a Christian, this is your calling, too. We, as a community, are to burst through the darkness as a million stars. We are to be different.

So, how will we be purposefully different today?