Passing of years brings rededication to mission

LITTLE ROCK — Whew, this year’s birth month seemed to bring with it a slate of bad, disturbing or distressing news. Cruise-ship mishaps, a papal resignation, a once-admired Olympic athlete charged with murdering his girlfriend. Tragic shootings. A near miss with an asteroid. A troubled singer committing suicide. And, yes, the Whitney Houston one-year death anniversary downer.

In contrast, Birth Day was fairly low-key for me: a gazillion well wishes on Facebook. A nice day in church. A very nice dinner at a favorite restaurant. A chance to rest.

And an ever-stronger sense of the journey.

At this point, a birthday has become a whole other animal.It has become a time not so much to celebrate, but to give thanks to your maker, to reflect, soul search … and to give rather than merely receive. A birthday now is a time for epiphany, a time for shedding the dead skin of previous perspectives so that a new, keener awareness of your sense of purpose can emerge. It’s a time to realize that the burdens of past stumbles, mishaps, disappointments and hurts - already rendered toothless - have now become memories so distant, you wonder whether they happened at all. It’s a time of knowing that cakes, candles, wish making and gifts are far too inadequate ways to properly celebrate something so much more than a way to mark advancing age.

Ideally, the over-50 birthday has brought with it the ability to see the world with ever more of a satellite’s view, rather than the myopic view that is so often a byproduct of youth or selfishness. It comes with the ability to truly laugh about things that once devastated, to let any unpleasantries roll off our backs, knowing that they, too, shall pass and and that life really is too short to let anything bog us down in anger or bitterness. Specifically, it comes with an ever more keen awareness that battles must be chosen wisely and that it’s vital to know when to say - and I quote Sweet Brown, the woman whose news interview about surviving an apartment fire has gone viral on YouTube and given her more than 15 minutes of fame - “I ain’t got time for that.” It’s about knowing that precious time must be kept freed up for the purpose for which we’ve been called … a purpose that, if not about to reach its apex, is at least kicking into higher gear.

There’s a stronger sense of being among the ones specially chosen to be there for others in a time in which uncertainty is the name of the game, in a world whose changes and adversities have become overwhelmingly swift. This trip around the sun has sharpened my focus in an environment where it’s difficult to do so because things are going bump in the daytime, not just at night, and more people are choosing to throw up their hands in frustration and despair and opt for drastically permanent solutions to temporary problems.

It’s a sad and sorry world, some might say, that many believe won’t exist much longer in its present state. But on my Birth Day, I felt more than ever that I was destined to be here for such a time as this.

I felt more than ever that, like the guy in the parable throwing beached starfish back in the ocean, it’s my responsibility to do what I can to make things better for someone. It’s not about getting older, it’s not even about getting better - it’s about living my ministry and being that positive statistic, that arrow that’s going up on the chart.

To me, that’s so much better than a cake with 51 candles. And sweeter.

I’m sure I’m not alone. Happy birthday to my fellow February babies, and I hope you got that same feeling.

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