Day 24 - History Maker (by Delirious)
This song captivated me back in the late 90’s when, as an ardent fan, I saw them in concert many times. History Maker though, become something more significant in my life than just a mere song.
It was a favourite of my oldest brother, Andrew, who died at the age of 24 from heart failure. At the celebration of his life, there were countless stories of people who were impacted by his life, by his humility, compassion and grace, stories of lives changed because of him. He was a history maker. It was apt that this song was played on that day.
For me, it was a pivotal moment, I was determined to love life, live it to the full, and to be a history maker. Not in the traditional form of being famous for something significant, but for how I lived my life, unashamedly for Jesus Christ, that lives would be changed, that eternal destinies would be changed, making someone’s future history different.
During my preach yesterday about this song, I started by reading out some names, they were:
Oskar Schindler - saved 1,200 Jews from deportation to Auschwitz during WW2 by employing them in his factories.
Sigmund Freud - credited with founding of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst
Bill Gates - promised to, and arguably delivered on, putting a computer in everyone’s home, through developing Microsoft Windows & Office.
Tim Berners-Lee - invented the world wide web in 1989.
Rosa Parks - best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. The United States Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".[1]
Leonardo Da Vinci - one of the greatest painters of all time, but also known for developing concepts for flying machines, concentrated solar power, and the double hull.
Nicholas Winton - supervised the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to Britain
Martin Luther King - the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.
Joan of Arc - led the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans in 1429 that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years' War.
Mother Teresa - dedicated her life to caring for the destitute and dying in the slums of Calcutta
Johan Cruyff - Dutch footballer renowned for his imaginative playmaking, heavy influence on Barcelona’s Tic-Tac style of play.
All significant in their own right, but I can tell you many other names, not famous or even known to you, but history makers to me, in my life. They carry significant value to me.
The Oxford Dictionary defines a history maker as a person who influences the course of history or does something spectacular or worthy of remembrance.
I believe that being a History maker is about the choices you make, not just about the songs you sing. Its about choosing love the person you married and promised to be with, to honouring your friends before yourself, loving your parents, extending care and support to the refugee down your street, having conversations with your quirky neighbour, living generously and extending your table to anyone, to help lifting people out of poverty, walking humbly before the King of Kings.
The chorus of this song is such a declaration, and I think this is why it is my favourite. There is a boldness to it, it is not a worship song to be sung meekly.
I'm gonna be a history maker in this land
I'm gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
I'm gonna stand, I'm gonna run Into your arms, into your arms again
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians 3:2 MSG, “Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives.”
All of the names above didn’t decide that they were famous, that was for subsequent generations after them, who decided that they were ‘worthy’ of being called History Makers. I am constantly challenged by this song, not just in that am I living a life that honours these words, but also that is that what people see in me? Do they see Jesus threaded through my life?
Think it over:
Decide to live above or outside the ordinary, one that stands out from the world around us and has an impact upon the direction of the future.
Consider how can we live for others, with the impact of your life being felt by them long after your story reaches its conclusion.
Reflect on the passage from 2 Corinthians 3:2, if you are honest, what do people read when they see your life? What can you change so that people see more Jesus in you?
Written by Senior Pastor Tim