I am reflecting a bit - not too much, but some. Fifty five years once seemed like a lot of time. Now it doesn't. Different people have used that much time with varying degrees of effectiveness. Some have puttered along. Some have frittered it away entirely. Depending on the day of the week and the season on my life, I am somewhere in the continuum.
Tomorrow, I turn 55. It is a double matching digit birthday and I want to celebrate my gratitude for the opportunity of living. I have decided to give it away to three of my favorite local causes: The Fellowship of Joy (the church I've pastored for 4 months shy of 14 years), Mid Valley Christian Women's Job Corp, and Fresno Interdenominational Refuge Ministries (FIRM). I serve on the boards of the later two.
We are having a party!
I announced it and it is sort of a stone-soup party. I am bringing some meat, some song sheets, and myself. Whatever else happens, whatever else ends up on the table to eat, whoever comes, is all up to others.
My life has been sort of a stone soup life. I drop a little bit of something and others have added to it and made something of it.
In today's reading from "My Utmost for His Highest," Oswald Chambers quotes from Hebrews 11:8: "He went out, not knowing whither he went."
I especially gravitated toward and related to this quote:
"One of the difficulties in Christian work is this question - "What do you expect to do?" You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing. Continually revise your attitude towards God and see if it is a going out of everything, trusting in God entirely. It is this attitude that keeps you in perpetual wonder - you do not know what God is going to do next. Each morning you wake it is to be a "going out," building in confidence on God."
So, I really don't know what this celebration is going to be or if anyone will come or contribute to the whole ... but I am going to show up.
And showing up is a pretty big deal in life.
My birthday presents are for the causes I mentioned because these are a few of the places where I would like to see some good soup brew. These are places where I am currently investing my life in a small way.
If you are in town, stop by the party. It should be fun. It is always fun to get together. It will be at 4141 N. Fresno St., Fresno (93726) from 4-6 PM. It is not about me.
If you cannot come, but wish to contribute to some really wonderful causes, visit my BIRTHDAY ON PURPOSE web site. It is a small "stone-dropped-in-the-pot" initiative that may or may not grow into something bigger.
It really is not about me.
That is something I am learning about my life. It is not about me, but I am responsible for the choices I make inside my skin and exercise through it.
I am glad to be alive. I look forward to many years. I know 55 is not old even though I'll be able to get "senior coffee" at McDonalds and order off the senior menu at Denney's. However, I have less time now than I did before - more wisdom, but less time to use it. It would be presumptuous to count on what is not promised to the neglect of what is. I have not been promised unlimited days. I have been promised unlimited grace and countless opportunities for each day I live.
I (we) have also been promised that as we make small investments in others, those investments can and will multiply through the efforts of those who add their own to the pot.
So, the adventure continues and this is but a milestone. I invite you to celebrate with me by celebrating the life you have been given and investing it in living on purpose and in encouraging other people to become all they can be.
