A Post that Applies to You 1/365 Days of the Year

I am 20 years old today, in the... Gregorian, Julian, Persian, Indian Civil and Hebrew Calendars. I'm 21 in the Islamic calendar.... I've seen 247 full moons, and 7,305 days.


It took me a long while to become at peace with my birthday being so close to Christmas - simply being near to this holiday means I miss out on the simple joy of a birthday party of any regular scheduling. I celebrated my seventeenth birthday party along with the prior three years' (which I had forgotten to celebrate) in June two years ago.


It is very much a difficult thing to talk about, because the humility culture I was raised in told me not to complain about my birthday being shafted by the birth of our Lord and Savior. Thus I kept silent about many of my misgivings, and I can attribute a great deal of my cynicism to the fact that, since my birthdays were always lesser affairs, I was quickly disillusioned to the thought of celebration. Or, perhaps the correct phrase is “I was quickly turned off...” no matter.


Thus, my birthday's always been spent being the most corporately awake with the rest of my family on any given day, with no party, while other people have parties and revelries on their own days. Thus, as an outsider looking in on these celebrations, I must make a quite apt observation of the moment.


Observe the average person celebrating their own birthday. It seems that they are celebrating themselves, but in reality many of my friends are celebrating the fact that God gave them breath and charged them with the task of spreading the Gospel. But, as with practically any good thing God intends, we (and by “we”, I intend to accuse the average celebrant; if you feel this does not apply to you, then by all means drop this accusation from your offense) quickly make it more garish, lavish, and selfish. No longer is God in the picture, but simply.... “me”.



I will change my scope to another target, to avoid playing the “selfish world” fiddle again, as its strings are so overplayed as to make its melody cliché. My birthday this year will be mostly spent with the fine people at Passion City Church. Serving alongside them as we park, guide and lead people to and in worship. I think this will be a quite fantastic day, precluding an equally fantastic year, friends.