My Birthday Meditations

The following were my birthday meditations. Hope they could somehow edify you.
 

Meditation #1: Don’t Waste Your Funeral! 

August 29—it was my birthday! About 5 in the morning I was already awakened by some loud chats of people inside our living room. That was strange. My birthday is too trivial for such an unusually noisy morning. Something bigger must have happened.  After a while, I found out that my Uncle Ben has just died. And for some reason, the 6-day funeral must be done at our house. I sighed. Though I wasn’t expecting a joyful celebration on my birthday, I also wasn’t expecting such a mournful incident on my birthday!

Death and funeral, therefore, filled my mind. I remembered that the last time there was a funeral at our home was 6 years ago. I don’t like what happened back then! Many noisy diverse persons were only gambling and filling their bellies with food and alcohol inside and around our house for nights!  So I thought of what it means to have a God-glorifying funeral.
 

The following is how I want my funeral to be (though I hope not too soon):
a.    If I can’t have my funeral, that’s fine. Let the people know it’s not necessary. My soul will be with the Lord, and my future incorruptible body is assured.
b.    But if I’ll have my funeral, let it not be mainly about mourning. Granted, emotional pain is unavoidable. But let not the mourning be too long. That will only make people think that my hope of life is gone. Let them know I have the hope of resurrection. Let it last for at most three days.
c.    Don’t spend much money. Don’t buy much food and drinks. Let my funeral, burial, and grave be simple. Spend more money on the living than on the dead.
d.    Don’t even let anyone smoke or drink liquor. Let them know I hate those things. Let them know those are not for Christians. Let not people babble, gamble, and get drunk. These things will only make people embrace procrastination and worldliness.
e.    If my life is Christ-centered and my death is Christ-centered, my funeral (if there will be) must also be Christ-centered! Therefore, let them not talk about me too much. Let them talk about Christ! Let there be preaching, Bible studies, and fellowship. Let there be singing of hymns and spiritual songs. Let them think about the reality of death and eternal life.
Hope my family – present and future – would be able to read these. I hope they won’t waste my funeral. I hope they’ll make it God-glorifying.

 

Meditation #2: I Can’t Buy Socks? 

Since the funeral service will be in the living room, we needed to temporarily remove some appliances and bring them upstairs. I and my sister helped each other. After doing so, my sister told me that she and my mentor (her best friend) have a gift for me. “Wow, I got a new book!”, I thought. But what my hands received were pairs of new socks. Then my sister smilingly commented, “Nard [my mentor] said to me, ‘let’s buy what he can’t buy’.” What?! That statement struck me.  I can’t buy socks??? I know and they know that, technically, I can. I guess they said that because I find buying such things a waste of money. I spend my money sometimes on food, sometimes on techie stuff, and most of the time on Christian books. But seldom do I buy stuff for my body. “A jeans worth P600.00 is three books already!” is what I often say. I just know that if I have to treasure heavenly things, spending my money on Christian books—earthly things containing heavenly messages—is the right thing to do. And, maybe, that was also because I experienced many provisions from the Lord whenever I need such things. Polo shirts from my mentor, pants from my brother, and toothbrushes from my sister, just to name a few.
 

By that day, I wore my new socks instead of the worn-out ones. My feet felt comfortable. I never thought of that before (LOL). Furthermore, my soul was glad. And that wasn’t only because I had the new socks I “cannot” buy but also because those socks somehow affirm that I don’t have a worldly lifestyle. That gift of pairs of socks somehow says that I’m being sanctified by God. And sanctification is a more precious gift. Thank God!

 

Meditation #3: The Lord’s Day Above My Birthday 

I received some greetings through text messages and through Facebook. But, except for the no-more-to-be-paid-hundred-peso I borrowed from my other sister (and some promises from friends—I hope they won’t forget! ^_^), the pairs of socks was the only gift I received on that birthday. But I was absolutely fine. My birthday was Sunday. Actually, what I was thinking of early in the morning was our New Testament Survey. I was too tired the night before that so I failed to finish preparing our John-12 lesson. That’s why as soon as the house preparation was done, I hurriedly left the house, went straight to a vacant room of our church’s school, and finished the lesson there. Yes, people meeting me greeted me with “Happy Birthday” yet I still felt like the rest of the day was too ordinary. I just did what I used to do. And I still am sleep-deprived (Guess I got insomnia).
 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful to God for another year in my life. But I don’t value my birthday more than the Lord’s Day. I knew I’ll be more pissed off if I messed up as I taught God’s word than if I got no birthday greetings. That’s why I often don’t understand people spending their Sundays outside the church.
 

The Lord’s Day must be more important than my birthday because God is more important than anyone else. Worshiping Him is our end. My reply to the greetings I received from some fellow Christians on that Sunday was: “Let’s continue turning the world upside down, okay? My birthday is far less valuable than that. Soli Deo Gloria!”

 

Meditation #4: Debut—Who Cares?! 

I think I didn’t mention something. That was my 21st birthday. For many people, that really mattered because from that day onwards, society would expect males to sober up and act maturely as an adult. The problem is that I don’t buy that myth of adolescence. I am seriously enjoying doing hard things ever since I became a Christian, be it for career, family, or ministry. I was (and still am) always mindful of preparing for and fulfilling my future (big) dreams. And thanks to the Harris twins, this truth became clearer: Debut really didn’t matter. What matters is a mature mindset that radically and relentlessly aims to maximize your God-given potential in this world that needs you, even if it doesn’t acknowledge that. Getting older and maturing are different things. The former is inevitable while the latter is on our hands! If you’re a teen, don’t waste your teenage years having fun and leisure, thinking that you’ll eventually mature someday. What you do today will largely shape your future! Waste your time now and you’ll most probably end up wasting it again tomorrow. Do hard things NOW and you’ll have an incomparably enjoyable and enviably fruitful future. Step out of your comfort zones. Do hard things.
 

What I did a day after my birthday may be an example (though this may be just a small thing to some). Early Monday morning (August 30) I woke up seeing my Auntie Gloria, wife of Uncle Ben, sitting in front of her husband's coffin. I felt that God was calling me to share the gospel with her. So after saying a prayer, I decided to share 1 Corinthians 15. I was nervous and hesitant because we don’t usually talk. But, despite my fear, I still went down and asked her if she would like to hear me share something from the Bible. She responded positively and after saying only a few words I saw tears bursting out. I admit that evangelism wasn’t easy at that time. She constantly wept and spoke more about her dead husband. But at least I can say that I faithfully mentioned the gospel essentials and I managed to show genuine sympathy—all by the grace of God.