21st Birthday

Birthdays, in general, are quite interesting. They are good, and can definitely be a celebration of God’s grace on someone’s life. But as I approached my twenty-first birthday, two dilemmas loomed like speed bumps on my road to happiness. The first dilemma was the purpose of the Bible. The purpose of the Bible, from Old Testament to New Testament is to display and point to Christ. The purpose of our lives in growing in Christ-likeness is to display Christ in each moment of our lives, within every avenue of suffering, and through each relational fog. Due to the all applying sufficiency of the gospel, this purpose applies to my 21st birthday as well. It is interesting to me, because so often the focal point and goal of so many Christians, on their 21st birthday is to go drink a brewski, get a little buzzed, get drunk, go downtown just to drink, and yet the focal pointof everything, especially a 21st birthday should be displaying Christ, not pampering my sin.

Another interesting speed bump on the road to my 21st, was the individual mindset I began to acquire as my birthday approached. I began to wonder what my girlfriend got me, or what my family was going to get me. It better be good, I mean I deserved it. I began to feel like I deserve for tpeople to treat me like king. This mindset began to sink in, like every other birthday before this one. The birthday tends to reinforce this misnomer that I deserve something. Only the King deserves something, and only God is king. And so as I began to desire for my birthday to display Christ, rather than pamper my flesh, I began to look where the attributes of Christ are most clearly illustrated, the cross of Christ. And as I began to look at the cross and its implications, it hit me. I don’t deserve anything, not even on my birthday. Birthdays are awesome but they can be devastating too. Because the whole population at least once a year, is massively persuaded and encouraged to believe that they have this inherent right, this deserving to be served. Birthdays often reinforce that we deserve to be magnified, which is ironically, the root cause of sin. Birthdays do not exist to make much of ourselves, birthdays exist to recognize the grace of God and make much of God. Redeem your birthday, display Christ.