Birthday Holiday

Yesterday was my mother's birthday. You can probably imagine my year's of stress having to deal with my mom's birthday and Mother's day in the same week. Two presents, two cards, two dinners; two of whatever families do for mom's birthday and Mother's Day. I always felt bad for this kids--like Donna from Beverly Hills 90210--whose birthday's were on Christmas. I wondered how they ever knew which gifts was for what.

My mom never had that problem. She has always treated her birthday like a national holiday. She doesn't go to work, friends or family take her out to eat. It is her day! And those around her have always known to be very clear about which gift was for her birthday and which was for Mother's Day. She took it easy on us though, she never cared much about Mother's Day. Her birthday was the thing.

Not surprisingly, I have inherited her love for birthdays. And now with my wife and daughter, we celebrate birthdays with more excitement and fervor than any other holiday. Here's kinda how I see it. Everyone celebrates Christmas, Father's and Mother's Day, Valentine's Day etc.... And while I know that people around the world share birthdates, there is something special in taking one day, while the rest of the world continues in its mindless hustle and bustle, to say to someone you love, "I celebrate you."

What a wonderful gift to be able say, "you are special, not in the generic 'everybody's special' sense but you are special to me. I choose to be in relationship with you. Your life makes my living better. I am grateful to God for the gift of you."

It seems to me that there some kind of external pressure with national holidays, but celebrating birthdays seems to be more about personal privilege. The privilege it is to be in relationship with someone, to love someone uniquely, to say today is your day.

So it is in that spirit that I say to Gloria Palmer, "I love you" and "Happy Birthday."

Words to Remember

I have a terrible memory. I also read a lot. This means that much of my reading is simply re-reading things that I have already read. It happens all the time. I go back to read something that I thought was very profound, only to discover that my memory under-served the text and the words are much more profound than I remembered.

Here are a few powerful quotes for recent re-reads.

1. From Philip Yancey's Disappointment With God: "Some Christians long for a world well-stocked with miracles and spectacular signs of God's presence. I hear wistful sermons on the parting of the Red Sea and the ten plagues and the daily manna in the wilderness, as if the speakers yearn for God to unleash his power like that today. But the follow-the-dots journey of the Israelites should give us pause. Would a burst of miracles nourish faith? Not the kind of faith God seems interested in, evidently. The Israelites give ample proof that signs may only addict us to signs, not to God."

2. From Mother Teresa, (a quote that I always try to take into the pulpit with me): "What we say does not matter, only what God says to souls through us."

3. From Dan Taylor's Myth of Certainty: "Mistaking this active life of faith for an institutionally backed and culturally bound belief system is similar to reducing the Mona Lisa to paint-by-numbers."

4. From Soren Kierkegaard: "Christian scholarship is the human race's prodigious invention to defend itself against the New Testament, to ensure that one can continue to be a Christian without letting the New Testament come too close."

Email me some of your though-provoking quotes!