Your birthday is something you tend to always remember because it comes up year after year. Actually, it is the anniversary of your birth that you remember. Some people make a great fuss about birthdays and enjoy birthday presents, party and birthday cake. Other people are very low key about it. Some cultures do not even celebrate birthdays. So why the big deal about birthdays?
The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, ‘It is appointed once to a man to die, but after this the judgement’. Interestingly, there never was nor will be a repeat of ‘you’. God made you ‘unique’, from your face, your fingerprint, your personality and even your voice. You are ’you’, a once-off product within the human race.
Psalm 90:10 records that our lives can span seventy years (three score and ten). Some people live longer and some live shorter lives. So what do you do in your timespan? If I asked this question to a group of high school students they will say, ‘make a difference in this world’. If I ask them the same question a decade later, what will be their likely response? I bet you can guess because many of you reading this right now are searching for answers, looking for a better life, looking for what more this world has to offer.
So, your birthday comes around yet another year and you ponder, ‘what have I done, what have I achieved, how content am I with my lot in life…’ If you are in the honeymoon stage of your life, be it in a relationship, a career, a new investment, good on you! But when that shine is gone and reality sets in, we look into ourselves to see how significant a life we have lived and how we have impacted our world. Youth and vitality are great things but they soon fade away just like the Lilies in the valley, beautiful to behold but fades too soon.
Not everyone can be Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci but we must not forget we are all ‘unique’ and there is never going to be another one of us, ever! We were put on this earth at a specific time, in a specific place, for a specific purpose. With each passing birthday, are you living your life with a purpose in mind? More specifically, do you know what your purpose is? You can never be another person, so what is the point of trying to live under the shadow of someone else? Go out into the sunlight and be what you are meant to be. Nobody else can be ‘you’. Remember those high school students? What is stopping you from following your own dream and fulfilling your God given destiny?
I come from a family of four siblings; each one so different from the other in terms of interest, intellect, social inclinations and personality yet we look physically similar in many ways. We all live in different parts of the world and have different careers but what makes us siblings unique is who we are and what we do. At family gatherings we fondly remember those unique characteristics.
We were blessed to celebrate the birthday of our mother who has lived beyond the expected seventy years. Her life can be summed up as one of service to others. In blessing others through what she does and who she is, she has been blessed in more ways than you can count. Her credo was to live a Christ-like life, unselfishly dedicated to enhancing the lives of others. This did not insulate her from life’s rocky road but it sure built her resilience. Like a battle-scarred soldier, she stands strong, holding her torch high and lighting the path for others. That is a life of purpose, knowing who you are, what you are placed here for and living your life by meaningfully impacting your community.
Mark 8:36 says, ‘What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his own soul?’ He has emptiness in his heart and meaninglessness in his life. Jesus was asked an existential question by a rich young ruler. The answer He gave was very hard for the young man to apply because he attached great value to material things. Do you realize that when we die we will not take anything with us. Accumulating wealth (which is temporal) at the expense of your soul (which is eternal) is indeed foolishness. If you say, ‘my purpose is to be rich and famous’, ask yourself how many people’s heads did you tramp to get that wealth? A good indicator is the real friends you have seated around you when you or your family member is sick.
As birds of a feather flock together, likewise good people attract good people. So don’t count your birthday by the number of years you have lived but rather by the number of friends you have made and the lives you have touched. ◊
Linda Pearl
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