#31

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. Today it’s been my day. That is, it’s a birthday for me, and #31. I wish things had been going better today, but I started developing something last week and now it’s reached the point where I’m not good enough to function as I normally would.

But as the Mrs. would tell you, that rarely keeps me down entirely. Some of you might have known some changes to the site. I am currently trying to categorize the blogs that I have done. I have been told to do this enough and thought last night was as good a time as any to start.

Anyway, a birthday is usually a good time to reflect. In the past, I saw birthdays as another time when you got gifts. Now I still enjoy the gifts today. It’s nice to know people are thinking about you and to see what they get that they think is a way of tuning into what you want.

Now however life is different. Last night I talked to a friend who is a widow and we were talking about a single friend of hers and how it does make a difference when you have someone you can come home to and know you’re not just coming home to an empty place where you wonder if anyone would even care if you were there or not.

This makes birthdays extra special for me. While I haven’t been doing my best today, my wife has been making sure that I’m taken care of in so many ways. Those ways help me to realize that I am a very blessed man in that I have a wife who is incredibly devoted to me.

Which brings us back to birthdays. It’s a reminder that our existence is something to celebrate. We exist, and we exist because He exists. Our very being from moment to moment is grounded in God. I do not think the full reality of that idea has hit me yet, but I hope it does someday soon.

The reason you are here is because of the grace of God on your life. The proper response to this gift is celebration and honoring. It is to give your life to that giver. He was under no obligation to give you that gift. He is also under no obligation to keep giving you that gift.

Most of us don’t even stop to think about how God could take our lives at any moment. We’re used to a fairly reliable system he’s set in place where we can usually tell if someone is about to die. Sometimes the evil of man or natural calamities or other events interfere, but by and large, we live with the assumption that the people we’re with will always be around.

For my marriage, I am reminded of the advice of a friend before I got married who told me that he prays that his wife will die one day before he does. It’s a good prayer to pray. If you want to know how much someone matters to you, take the time to consider what life would be like if that someone wasn’t there. You can do this with anything. Do you want to know what value something has in your life? Just try to imagine what it would be like if it wasn’t there.

This can work with God also. Of course, if God wasn’t there, nothing would be there, but if you want to know how your life would be different if you were an atheist, just think about you believe and how much you’d have to change. If you say “Well not too much” then it is likely God doesn’t really have that big of a place in your life. You could contrast that then with a favorite hobby of yours.

And all of us will find the God aspect of our lives lacking.

Today, I am thankful that I am here and so are so many people in my life. I told my wife last night that when I woke up in the morning I would have a massive amount of emails. These would be to tell me that X had posted on my wall on Facebook to have a Happy Birthday. (Do some of you people ever sleep?!) It’s been nice to see all of that going on.

I’m very pleased to have the family that I do and now to have the new family that I do and I have seen how much they appreciate me. Some of you might be wondering about how recent events have affected us. It has been hard, but I think overall it has brought our family closer together. In the end, we’ll all be stronger because of what has happened. I remember talking to my mother-in-law recently about this and how she said “It can be used for good” and I just said “It has to be.” That’s the biblical promise to us. If it happens, it is going to be used for our good. (Now that should bring some comfort.)

So overall, it has been a good day. Things haven’t gone as I would have liked, but oh well. It happens. Deal with it. I hope you all appreciate the changes I am bringing to the blog. Keep in mind if you want to celebrate what Deeper Waters is doing, there is always the donate button that is located here on the blog. I know that would be a good gift today and something that would make the Mrs. and I both smile.