Morning Devotional
June 5, 2005
"Another Birthday" (Part 1) 
    by Don Emmitte

Therefore, be careful to obey every command I am giving you today, so you may have strength to go in and occupy the land you are about to enter. If you obey, you will enjoy a long life in the land the LORD swore to give to your ancestors and to you, their descendants--a land flowing with milk and honey! For the land you are about to enter and occupy is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you planted your seed and dug out irrigation ditches with your foot as in a vegetable garden. It is a land of hills and valleys with plenty of rain-- a land that the LORD your God cares for. He watches over it day after day throughout the year! (Deuteronomy 11:8-12 NLT).

 

Let me emphasize two things at the start of this little series. First, Happy Birthday Mary! Today is my wife’s birthday. Of course I am not going to reveal her age, but I can tell you that she is much younger in both physical appearance and mindset than I am! Some of that is the inspiration for this series. As I begin to think about birthdays and getting a little older, I am reminded that the past is often distorted to seem much better than it really was and therefore cause us to lose some of our joy in the present. Second, this is not a mini-sermon to my wife (I’m smarter than that)! Her birthday serves only as the impetus for the thoughts that bring me to these observations.

 

So with that in mind, why are birthdays hard for us to take sometimes? Babies have no problem handling birthdays, perhaps because they have no clue what's going on! They cry, wet, burp, hiccup, sleep and do whatever feels good or bad to their heart's content. Toddlers are a little more "aware." Bigger kids get very excited with the prospect of skating parties, clown parties, or pizza parties. They celebrate for all it's worth! Teens impatiently wait for their next birthday too, make an electronic list, invite everyone they can think of for an all-nighter, and food, fun, food fights and frantic music. Mid-life adults? We hit the big 4-0 and the big 5-0 and our friends go crazy. They bring out the black balloons, the black crepe paper, the wheelchair, the cane, the prune juice and the Geritol to remind us that we are, without a doubt, their dear AGING friend. It's still fun and helps us forget the wrinkle lines, the graying hair, the aching back, the sore joints and whatever else comes with the beauty of old age! Join the party; we're all headed there!

 

The question then looms: “How do I handle a birthday?” I must confess that inwardly I don't LIKE the aging process, and while I still can camouflage it fairly well, or so I think. I am STILL getting old. Birth certificates don't lie! There are really only one of two ways: I could groan and moan and get depressed over the new "number," or I could focus away from myself and to the Lord who's been so good over so many years. Of course the latter is the best choice. With that choice in mind, we can go to the Scripture and discover this “new land” God has promised for all of us. Over the next three days we’ll discover three practical actions we might undertake to make the present much more joyful, regardless of our “age.” Until then, rest in the promise of God to make your present life full of blessing. Claim it. Believe it.