CELEBRATING!

I was listening to my pastor preach today, and he struck a chord with me. Lately that hadn’t happened, but today, it seemed like our minds were along similar paths.

He spoke of fellowship, and all that I get fine. But when he spoke of celebrating, I knew instantly what my next blog topic was going to be. I had been thinking about this for a few days already, and his voice on the subject was just the impetus I needed to actually write again.

Yes, that’s right I have been suffering lately, exactly because I haven’t been writing. And, writing is one of the things I do daily to ensure that I live a free and empowered life. Yes, I know, making sure I write every day may sound like discipline, but if I don’t write, I die inside a little but every day. I love it that much. So if I have to schedule it, or “discipline" myself every so often in order to do it, I am making myself do something I love to do. Doesn’t sound much like discipline, does it?

Well, here I am sidetracked yet again. Yes, you’ll notice every so often in posts that I ramble on, because I get sidetracked easily with my thoughts when writing. And you know me, why not write ALL of them down? You all want to read them anyway, right? RIIIIGHT!!?

Anyway, as briefly as I can, I want to talk about the number one thing we should be doing in fellowship.

No, it’s not organized worship. Although, enjoyed to the fullest, it is definitely worship in the spirit.

Of all the people in this world, who should be the most joy filled? Christians, right? Yeah, you’d think so.

But what do I see? Well, I see lots of things, such as arguments about theology, arguments about property, arguments about how to do worship, and all manner of discussions regarding “religion”.

But I do not see much celebration in the body of Christ. Why is that? Who has more reason than us to celebrate? Death tried to claim our Savior, and He snapped the cords of death in half, and buried them in hell. Here we are, living life most of the time as if there is nothing to celebrate.

And you can’t manufacture a celebration. You can’t make yourself feel happy, or draft up a plan to celebrate and guarantee a good time. A good time comes from the heart, it is already present before we start to celebrate.

If there is one thing I would like to see in my lifetime, it would be that I get to show the world how to celebrate. How to let loose!!! How to shout with the throat of the ocean, into the night, screaming in joy and wonder, celebrating my very life. If I could celebrate for two weeks, I would, and then, I’d look for more time and reason to do so again, as soon as possible.

This life is passing us by. If we aren’t celebrating life, we are missing life. We can work, we can do all manner of programs, and other various things. But if we cannot celebrate life, we are missing it.

Now, I know there are times in our lives when our hearts simply will not be into celebrating much of anything. I know there will be times when the sadness of a broken relationship, or the loss of a spouse, child, or friend, will leave us feeling as if death were a better alternative than life. But these times ought not to rule our existence.

And how to we begin the celebration? If it starts in our heart, how do we get our heart to celebrate?

I have just one way. Know Jesus.

If we begin to truly know Jesus, something strange is going to happen inside of us. It can’t happen if we are busy manufacturing what we could feel naturally if we just let our hearts love Jesus as they were meant to. So one way to know Jesus would be to stop manufacturing the false images we carry around because we think that’s what a Christian ought to look like. Learn to be real, and I promise it, your celebration will be real as well.

Guilt will fall by the wayside, temptation just won’t be that tempting. All of this is reality if we just learn to be real, because learning to be real is the first step toward loving Jesus for Who He is, not just for what He has done.

I get goose bumps often, whenever I think of this creation, and how God SPOKE it into being. I mean, come on!! Doesn’t that just absolutely blow your mind? And if our minds, the seat of “rational” thought, are blown, wouldn’t it follow that spontaneous celebration of the heart could commence immediately? I think our minds stand in the way of celebration. I think you cannot know Jesus with your head. I think you can only know Jesus with your heart.

So let the celebration begin! Drop the false images, the image management, if you will. God knows who and what you are anyway. There’s no hiding from Him what we seek to hide from everyone else. Some ancients have called this practicing the presence of God. I say, we don’t need to practice it, because it’s already game time, and He’s already here!!

I will have one more bonfire in the snow this year. Many will be invited, and many will come. But I am going to show them how I celebrate, and there will definitely be a primal roar heard from me that night. But the real celebration is already begun. If you only show up for that evening, you’ll be behind in the celebration. Show up now!!! God is here! Right now!! This, the Maker of life, within us, and I believe He wants to celebrate with us, not scold us, or shame us, or punish us.

Believers should be the most celebrating people on the face of this earth. We should not be finding creative new ways to bore people to death, which has been our reputation. Let them see our celebration, and then show them the REASON why.