Another birthday, ugh!

I have a birthday next week and I as I sit here contemplating the anniversary of my birth one thing is painfully clear… I’m not near as excited about July 31st as I use to be.

As a child the weeks before my birthday seemed to take forever as I sat in my room for hours with the big Sears catalog open and magic marker circling all the things on my wish list. I’d go grocery shopping with my mom and run to the bakery of the local Safeway to stare intently at all the different themed birthday cakes with my face pressed right against the glass, dreaming about how fun the party was going to be. With a summer birthday I usually got to have a sleep over and nothing was better than a bunch of my best buddies staying up all night telling scary stories. And God forbid you be the first one to fall asleep, the old “dip the fingers in warm water trick” always came into play.

Hitting the early part of the mid forties has brought a few changes. Instead of the Sears catalog, my wish list is now a brochure for a cruise I’d like to take in October. Five days sailing around the Caribbean sitting on my tushie in a deck chair, sleeping in all the way to 8:30 with no kids to wake me up. Instead of birthday cakes I stare intently at big, flat screen TV’s as I walk up and down the aisle of Best Buy trying to figure out how I can convince my wife that we really need another one. Scary stories have been replaced by an annual physical and nervously awaiting the “test results” to make sure everything is still working right, so far so good praise God.

Instead of the old excitement the birthday brought on, it’s now just a reminder that I ain’t getting any younger. And as I mull over that, I’m reminded of what Paul said and it makes a lot more sense as I add another year…

... Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:16-19

Yes we do get older and the physical body diminishes, but our spiritual muscles are constantly being rejuvenated and restored. If we want them to be…

If I go water skiing for an afternoon I’m going to be sore for a few days. If I share the love of Christ and what He’s done for me with someone else I feel fantastic for a lot longer. I feel closer to God and understand who He is in my life and His character more than I did a year ago. I’m able to take that and express it in ways that other people understand with a greater ease than I use to. Talking openly with others about Jesus is just as comfortable to me as talking about the weather since I really began to concentrate and focus on knowing Him better. And that takes hours and hours with a highlighter in a Bible, not a magic marker in the Sears catalog.

But as we get older even hard-core, Bible thumpin’ Christians can become stagnant in their spiritual lives. We can become so wrapped up in what we think we know that we forget to remember what’s important. Jesus had some advice for a group of people in Ephesus when they were having the same problem:

Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first.

Revelation 2: 5a

My biggest failing as I mature spiritually is to remember that repentance is not something I use to do but something I must keep on doing. Lustful thoughts, a little stretch of the truth or failing to truly forgive are just as filthy and unacceptable to God as the “really bad” things I did before I was saved. I get so wrapped up in the Ministry that I’m doing for God, that I forget to make sure that my path to Him is clear and uncluttered by un-confessed sin.

"Sin, regardless of how insignificant I may feel it is, is still a barrier between Him and me"

Our access to God’s throne room is not decided with a set of scales weighing the good we’ve done against the bad. The only way we can see God for who he is and fully realize His love and the true power of the blood of Christ is through a repentant heart. You don’t need a church or a priest or anything else to get real with God, you can do it right now right here. Open your heart to Him and get caught up on coming clean, you’ll be glad you did and He’s been waiting!

Be encouraged,

jb