Ever have second thoughts about decisions you’ve made? Regrets over missed opportunities? Risks you didn’t take? Not to worry. Chances are God has led you to where you’re supposed to be.
As a sophomore in high school I joined a rock band. I played guitar and sang. Over the next three years, we rehearsed hard and got better and better and more popular.
By senior year we were playing all the big dances at all of the area high schools. We even played some of the local bars despite being underage. The bar owners didn’t ask and we didn’t tell. We must have been pretty good.
Big opportunity
Upon graduation we were approached by an agent who offered to put us on the club circuit. We’d be touring the region, playing five nights a week and then moving to the next town.
In that era, this was the path to stardom. The clubs were where the record executives would go to scout new talent. If they liked your band, they might sign you to a recording contract, and if your records became hits you were on your way to riches and fame. It’s what we had always dreamed of.
Yet when the opportunity actually arrived, we had second thoughts. Performing as a full-time job didn’t seem as much fun as doing it as a weekend diversion. Plus, we all had girlfriends we wanted to go off to college with.
After agonizing over the decision, we chose to break up the band and head off to school. I would really come to miss the electricity and adrenaline of performing for an appreciative audience and the brotherhood of the guys.
Different path
But God led me on a different path. I would go on to meet and marry Sharon, the love of my life, and be blessed with a 46-year career in media work, the other passion of my life.
I have no complaints, only gratitude. But sometimes I can’t help wondering what might have been if we had kept the band together and gone on that club circuit. Would we have been discovered? Would we have made it big? Become wealthy and famous?
Today I am a rock star only to my young grandkids, who squeal with excitement when I come to visit them. Surprisingly, I find that is enough. My greatest hits album is my family.
God knows what you need.
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