Serving Simply

In my family, May is a big month for birthdays. I started thinking about all the attitudes we have concerning this designated day.

I have friends who begin shouting about this celebration months ahead of time. No way are they going to allow anyone to miss it. They prepare the landscape with reminders and sometimes even tongue-in-cheek gift suggestions. Well, I ‘think’ tongue-in-cheek is true.

I also have friends that do all in their power to downplay or even mandate feigned forgetfulness about any celebration or even mention of this day.  Maybe it’s the recognition of mortality creeping along with the steadily increasing age that prevents them from enjoying the special day. 

I ‘might’ have taken part in that second scenario but not for the reason printed above. At the time, it was more a matter of disappointment control. If nobody knew when my day had popped up on the calendar, there could be no sadness when people ‘forgot’ to apply even a mild form of celebratory greeting. It was justified, in my mind, because those who exuberantly expected their mile-marker never even asked me about the date of my milestone.

Anyway, because I was thinking of birthdays, I also remembered a conversation that took a turn towards birthday acknowledgments. 

It seems that my conversation participant is on the receiving end of wrath because he completely refuses to give homage to another friend's birthday with the appropriate and common phrase that we all know well. The confusion about this anger followed my friend's words as he commented, “When you think about it, it really doesn’t make any difference at all. What's the big deal? It's just another day. I certainly don’t care about birthdays or whether anybody recognizes mine!"

In hindsight, my response was a little harsh as I asked, “Well, do you care about your friend?” 

I tried to explain that even though he felt it was a non-issue, his friend clearly made its importance felt and known. It takes no time at all to put a reminder on a calendar and spend 30 seconds to make a person feel appreciated each year.

Well, I guess that’s just my opinion.

But I see that Jesus often asks that our lives be spent in servitude (the first shall be last and the last shall be first) to others. He seems to put emphasis on the concept of lifting each other up and supporting each other. 

This small effort to appreciate a friend, or even a complete stranger, seems to fall well short of the concept that “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  John 15 

No Greater Love, Michael Joncas

Michael Joncas, 1988

"Humble Christian service is simply the concrete expression of love." Ashley Engel  

While you're thinking of new, exciting, and yet simple ways to support, encourage, and stand with others, let me wish you all a very Happy Birthday!