🎁 hbd to me 🎈
I'm not typically one for attitubuting additional value to one day over another. Around Christmas time this gets me in the dog house for being a Scrooge. Or New Years Day... You do all realize that January 1st is just another day. Sure we made it around the sun once more. Birthdays tend to fall in the same category for me. So I'm one year older. One day older than I was the previous day.
Okay, okay. I'll stop my rant.
"Just another day," I've often thought. Yet this year there seems to be some extra weight to these days. Five and a half months ago I was told with a great degree of certainty that I wouldn't be having very many more of these special days. Check out this super long health story to fill you in if you don't know what I'm talking about.
To be sure, days seem to carry more weight when you're told you might only have as many as 700 more of them.
Yesterday I turned 35. "What did you do for your birthday" you may ask? Well, I never thought I'd answer that question by saying that I sat in a hospital, hooked up to an IV, receiving my third round of chemotherapy. Alas, that's what I did for my 35th birthday.
Five years ago was my 30th birthday. It was a good day. I set aside my sentiment that one day can't be that much more important than any other day and I threw myself a big party. It was a really fun time of seeing a number of people from different parts of my life come together to hang out and enjoy some BBQ! One of the things I did a bit differently was I "charged admission." Not really. But I sent out an invitation and I asked people to answer three questions on the back and give it back to me.
1. Tell some of the story of how we met?
2. Tell a story of a fun memory you share with me?
3. Share some words with me about me moving into this next season of my life.
The content of those cards is still something that is very special to me. So many fun stories and great memories. Maybe I'll do it again when I turn 40.
As I reflect on that in light of my current situation, it's hard to imagine myself, or anyone writing those words for seasons to come anticipating the possibility of me receiving chemotherapy five years later.
But isn't that what shapes our lives? The uncertainly of the future.
Isn't that what shapes our stories? The trials and the victories.
Isn't that what shapes our character? The way we respond to all that life throws at us.
One of the things that I've had to really process through this last few months is the reality that every day truly is a gift. Whether it seems we have many tomorrow's ahead of us or only a few, every tomorrow is truly a gift, a new opportunity to love those around us and to make a difference in the world. As my mortality got waved in my face in January and February of this year, I couldn't help but become more aware that at the end of the day the only thing any of us are really given with certainty is today (perhaps not even the full day) and maybe tomorrow. So it would seem that the only thing we are really required to be accountable with is today and maybe tomorrow. Certainly there is wisdom in looking ahead and being responsible. But the true weight falls on how we live today and tomorrow.
Today I can live in such a way that tomorrow will be richer for those around me.
Today I can love the people in my life in sacrificial ways.
Today I can invite Jesus to open my eyes to see what He is doing around me and show me what my part in it all is.
Today I can be a friend.
I once heard a quote that I won't try to actually quote because I don't remember exactly what it was. But it spoke to character and integrity. These things don't suddenly happen. You don't wake up one day and discover that you have integrity. These things are shaped over time, day after day, one today after the next.
Today I can live my life the way that I want to be known 5 years from now, 15 years from now, Lord-willing another 35 years from now!
I don't think I want to try to be the guy that squeezes every ounce out of every day and tries to "carpe diem" the snot out of everything. I'd drive myself (and my wife) pretty crazy pretty quickly if I tried. But I certainly, now more than ever, want to be the guy who lives life intentionally and doesn't take all the incredible blessings around me for granted.
In Romans 12 verse 11 Paul says something that has always really inspired me...
Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour serving the Lord.
That's how I want to live today, and tomorrow and for as many tomorrow's as I'm given.
Is "tomorrow just another day" for you? How can you be intentional to live life today the way you want to be known tomorrow?
