I am one of those people that, if you were to ask me who my favorite band or singer is or what my favorite song is, I would have difficulty narrowing down my choices to a single one. That said, I do have bands and songs that come around regularly in my rotation. When it comes to rock, Foo Fighters definitely top my list. Right now, however, while I am eagerly anticipating exciting news from the Foos after the release of their newest single, my playlists have been steeped in some singer-songwriters because I am a huge fan of the storytelling in their music; this includes the likes of JJ Heller, Andrew Peterson, and Sara Groves.
In that mix of songs is one from one of Sara Groves’ earlier albums, All Right Here, put out in 2002. The song, Maybe There’s a Loving God, is a wonderfully lyrical exploration of the narrator’s questions about whether there is a loving God or whether she is the result of a chance accident. Her words create such a beautiful journey, and the image of these lines remind me of those teenage years when I wondered about my own journey and the path I might want to take and whether there was a loving God who cared about my personal journey:
I spend each night in the backyard
Staring up at the stars in the sky
And, then, in the next verse, she comes back around to this inquiry but from the narrator’s mother’s perspective:
She’s so unresponsive
I just cannot break through
She spends all night in the backyard
Staring up at the stars and the moon
And, finally, it comes down to the counselor the narrator’s mother has lined up for her daughter and the words repeat, though with a slightly different bend to them:
And [they] want to know what I’m thinking
What motivates my mood
To spend all night in the backyard
Staring up at the stars and the moon
I see myself in these words and in this narrator’s wonderings. The personal wonderings my teenage heart and mind explored in similar ways. I have always been one to sit and stare and ponder, wondering about my life, my purpose, who I was meant to be, and, yes, during my younger years, whether there was a loving God.
The beauty of our lives, especially as teenagers, is that we have this beautiful opportunity to consider the big questions and to look at ourselves, our lives, and our completely unknown & mostly unknowable future and consider the possibilities. For many of us, we don’t necessarily have the freedom of such ponderings, of moments lying either out in the backyard staring up at the stars in the sky or in our rooms staring up at the ceiling overhead. Maybe even staring at the back of our closed eyelids as our minds wander and wonder and consider the unknowns and the things that stir our hearts.
I know when I was young, this wasn’t something we talked about.
And, yet, I am keenly aware of the big business life coaching and professional mentoring has become. In large part I am certain this is because most people don’t take the time to sit with the big questions of life when they are young and starting their journeys. Perhaps that is also why I am focused on providing those opportunities for our teenagers and why I have incorporated this very thing as part of our unschooling curiosity adventures.
Today was one of those kinds of days—diving into questions that aren’t easy to answer because it asks you to see yourself in light of your talents and gifts and strengths. And I loved every moment of watching my girls quiet that loud, critical voice that can name all the things they don’t think they can do and work hard to name things they are good at. If you’ve never done this for yourself, I highly recommend spending some time looking at all the gifts and talents and abilities that have been placed in you, too.
Even more, I loved asking each girl to picture their life in the unknown future and putting into words the kind of life they want to live. I pushed them to consider what that might look like and feel like. I encouraged them to consider their relationships, their friendships, the location of their home, and asked them to consider what it felt like to be in that place. These are challenging questions indeed. And they tackled them with tenacity and even a hint of a smile on their faces.
When they were done and each commented how this wasn’t an actual possibility, I stopped them in their tracks. And with more than a hint of a smile, I assured them this is their first step. You cannot find your way to that place without a map and they are creating that map. Today, they entered a possible destination into the GPS of their hearts and souls, picturing their lives. No crystal ball necessary. They may not be there yet—to the place they wrote about or even believing it’s possible. But, I am. I believe in them and I cannot wait to watch their journeys unfold.