Celebrating selectively

My penchant to celebrate life in big ways and little ways has been seriously put to the test. If the past thirty-six hours could be framed in a collage, these would be the startling motifs:

A torn contact lens, a burst eardrum, fever, flu, diarrhoea and more diarrhoea, a paediatrician and several other doctors, a broken Volkswagen being towed away, a Subaru making several trips to two different hospitals and various places of work and schooling, dead camera batteries on the morning of a first birthday (though these had been checked the night before), miserable un-Septemberish weather, minimal – and intermittent – sleep, a cancelled swimming lesson and the ensuing misery, an alarm going off continually and the arrival of well-meaning ADT officers, a laptop hanging in the middle of teaching a class of sixty boys, and a Matric – five weeks away from Finals – asking for an explanation of finite verbs…

This is not a patchwork of colour. This is a bleak, melodramatic depiction of angst, panic and a sense of overwhelming failure (interspersed with self-pity).

Scotty did enjoy playing with his wrapping paper this morning, but besides that I haven’t felt as if there has been a whole lot to celebrate. Murray and I read Habakkuk 3:17-19 again last night (in bed, with tea and Myprodol), and it struck me that sometimes there just isn’t anything to celebrate, in terms of the stuff of life, but that always – always – we can rest in, and celebrate, God.

‘Even though the fig trees have no blossoms,

And there are no grapes on the vines;

Even though the olive crop fails,

And the fields lie empty and barren;

Even though the flocks die in the fields,

And the cattle barns are empty,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord!

I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!

The Sovereign Lord is my strength!

He makes me as surefooted as a deer,

Able to tread upon the heights.’

My friend and colleague, Bruce Collins, also just sent me this amazing link (http://catalystconference.com/):

Stop. Pay Attention. Focus. Where Are You?
Where is your heart? Where is your soul?
In a million different places. Mind on a million different things.
Distressed. What needs to be done? Will you finish that project?
Who won the game? Fretting over a to do list that is unfinished.
Talking on the phone. Checking twitter. Updating your status.
Wondering what "they" are doing. What's going on "out there."
Will I ever get ahead? The past. The future. Distracted. Out of Control.
Be still and know that I am God.
Take a deep breath. Rest in Him. Be rooted. Immersed.
Get comfortable with silence. Listen. Find your true voice.
Who and what is right in front of you? See things you didn't see.
Feel things you didn't feel. Now engage in this moment.

Be. Here. Now.

Be Present.

Happy birthday, my Scott-Scott. J