First, a little birthday trivia about my family that you may or may not know. I think this is pretty cool - almost Guiness Book worthy - but I'm sure there's someone out there who would beat us. Anyway, on my dad's side of the family (the Townsleys) we have some interesting birthday 'coincidences.' My dad's sister (my Aunt Carolyn) was born on Oct. 28th. She's the only girl sibling that my dad had. My dad's brother then had his first daughter (my cousin Sydney) and she was also born on Oct. 28th. Then my dad had me (his first daughter) and I was born on Oct. 28th. So, we always thought this was pretty neat. Then my cousin Steven (Sydney's brother) had his first daughter (Danielle) and I still remember this because she went into labor on Oct. 27th and we all were holding our breath to see if she would hold out until midnight before she was born...... well, she didn't (boo) -- she was born a couple hours before midnight. Guess her mom didn't hear our pleas to 'wait just a little longer!' (haha) And finally, my brother Mark had had his first daughter (Lena) 3 years ago and she was due to arrive on, yes, Oct. 28th. But she had other plans of coming into the world a bit sooner than that and was born on Oct. 20th. And so far that's it for the Oct. birthday streak. So it's safe to say that Oct. is a pretty busy birthday month in the Townsley family!
Since I'm writing about 'Birthday Eve,' it's been on my mind today to come up with a resolution for my 45th year of life. I've never been very good about making or keeping New Year's resolutions, but somehow doing one for my birthday year seems more personal to me, so I'm hoping I'll stick with it a little better. ;-) The problem was that I couldn't come up with what I wanted my resolution to be. Well, I had prayed this morning to be able to see God more clearly through the day... and one of the first things that I came upon was a facebook status update from my friend Lisa that said she was praying to see 'God-moments' in HER busy day. So that encouraged me and helped me see God as I saw us praying the same prayer today... A little later I was praying while driving in the car and thinking that I really wanted to hear God's voice and just sense His presence -- and I thought that in order to do that, I really had to get my own selfish desires out of the way and just listen to Him. And this account of John the Baptist and Jesus 'popped' into my head:
They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him." To this John replied, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.' The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
He must become greater; I must become less.
John 3:26-30
Now, this is not one of those verses that I normally have 'on hand' in my memory stores for quick recall when I really need some encouragement or help... it kinda came out of left field, if you know what I mean. But it has stayed with me all day and I think that what I want to start my birthday with tomorrow is this idea that in all things I do, think, feel, want and so on... "Jesus must become greater, and *I* must become less."
A while back a study came out that pointed to the "40's" as the most difficult decade in life to navigate through. And in particular, they noted that "44" was indeed the worst year... (I know, realy encouraging stuff, huh -- my apologies to all you 'youngsters' who haven't gotten to 44 just yet!) Well, year 44 in my life has certainly had it's challenges -- and I imagine it's mostly because I had John 3:30 very backwards. So, my resolution is to turn that back around this next year (and from now on!) and live so that Jesus, indeed, becomes greater in my life, and I become less...
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