Celebrate...

What does it mean to be celebrated? What does it mean to celebrate?

My mom has pictures of me when I was a little girl, with a construction paper crown with jewels(made by my mom) on my head and a banner behind me saying Happy Birthday Anna. I remember feeling like a princess. As I grew up my crown was traded in for sleepovers with friends, pizza, games, candy, cake...it even followed me to school when my mom/dad brought in cupcakes and treat bags for me and my classmates.

Somehow over the years the shimmer and dazzle of my birthday started to dull...at some point I started not wanting my birthday to come. I denied my heart and took on the false desire of not wanting to be celebrated...I began to believe there wasn't really anything to celebrate...my heart said no we don't need to do much at all, and at the same time silently crying for a construction paper crown...

I don't know the instant things turned. I do believe culture has a voice in it. The majority of people I know cringe at the thought of their birthday. See it as just another day...no need for celebration...no need to set it apart from any other day... Why celebrate getting older, it's depressing, it's acknowledging you aren't as young as you used to be. Come on...really? Really?

Somehow at some point in my life I bought in to this ridiculous lie that once you get to be a certain age birthday's just don't need to be celebrated any more...at least nothing extravagent or really really fun and exciting...so you go out to eat...you have some cake and ice cream with family and friends...you open some gifts...hear an off tune Happy Birthday in your honor...the sun rises and sets and the day is done...how sad. Who would want to have a birthday? Don't get me wrong, spending time with family and friends with food, cake and ice cream is fun...it is really...but don't we do that most days anyway? I mean the only real difference from any other day is the serenade of Happy Birthday....

So...what am I getting at?

The month or so leading up to my birthday was filled with angst...a conflict of the same old birthday plans...I'll get together with friends and famliy, have a nice dinner, play some games, eat some sweets and that'll be that. My heart cringed...literally...twisted, whimpered, cried... I wondered what was wrong with me, and in that moment I stopped denying my heart. I allowed myself to want more...to want to be celebrated...but not just a celebration of me...a celebration of life. Of Him. Of the gift every day brings. I realized that in my lack of celebration for the past handful of years, I had more or less said to the Author and Creator of celebration and life...You are wrong...you failed...there is nothing in this life you gave me worth getting excited for even on this one special day. Tears brimmed my eyes...forgive me came breathlessly from my lips and I then understood I had been wrong, I had been denying Him the praise, glory, and worship for the most precious gift of all...LIFE. I vowed to change that this year...

As most of you know my birthday has now passed...it was the most celebrated week ...yes I said week of my life thus far. It was a celebration of life...not just mine...but His...and yours. I went backpacking for the first time ever...5 1/2 mile trek to a campsite with no electricity, no running water(except the stream we camped next to), no toilets(not even joy john's)...it was hard, it was tiring, it was hot, it was WONDERFUL. We went even though there was a 60% chance for rain...and when it rained we all gathered under a hole-y tarp, arms raised to keep water from pooling and dripping on our hammocks(our beds)...we ate ramen noodles, mac and cheese, alfredo noodles...drank wine...laughed...and when the rain finally died off we grabbed our flashlights, lit a couple cigars and a pipe and played dice...it was incredible!!! The next morning we had a ROARING fire...coffee...grits...oatmeal...pop tarts...and popcorn(yes you read right popcorn for breakfast). We talked, took down camp, and then headed back to the cars...one of the hardest and best things I learned is how not to pack a backpack, which is exactly how I packed my back pack...luckily I had some very strong athletic men to come to my rescue...but we won't get into that right now this is about celebration and not humility and allowing people to help you...

After a day of sleeping on my wonderful bed...I set out to the beach with a friend and our dogs...a 5 1/2 hour drive took us to Rodanthe NC...one of the small towns along the beautiful beaches of the Outer Banks...we were greeted by fireworks as we stepped out of the car at our campsite...after setting up camp we muscled up a fire on the beach, cooked the best burgers I've ever had in my life over the fire, had raspberry champagne and chocolate cake...the sky was crystal clear and filled with twinkling stars...the moon was huge and lit up the ocean just enough to see the waves crashing onto the beach...this birthday was to be a week of firsts for me...backpacking, hiking to a campsite, sleeping in a hammock, doing my business without a toilet of any kind, and...skinny dipping...yes...stripping off all my clothes and getting into the water...I was reassured that it was dark enough even with the moonlight that nothing could be seen...and as I shimmied my clothes off I looked up to see a shooting star blaze across the sky...I ran into the waves-midcalf deep(the ocean is pretty intimidating at night)...stood there bare and vulnerable for about a minute taking everything in and then quickly scampered back to my clothes...it was exhilirating...it was a first...

This year my birthday week was a celebration of life...an invitation for others to celebrate life...His life, my life, their life...It was more than I dreamed of and everything I hoped for...

So what is celebration...for me it is embracing life...praising Him for giving me breath...being excited about birthdays and every day and celebrating Him and me and you...

To allow people to celebrate you is to allow others into your life...allow others to thank Him for the gift of you...who you are...who He is...who you are together. It is needed. It is important. It is necessary. It brings Him glory. Praise. Worship. Adoration. Love.

I challenge you to celebrate...I challenge you to allow yourself to be celebrated... Who are you to sell yourself short...to tell Him He failed...not to embrace, dance, roll around in, run, jump, fly in celebration of you...of life...of Him...CELEBRATE!!!

p.s.he let me in on a little secret...it isn't a birthday day or week...it's a birthday lifetime...all day...every day...celebration