The Art, or Discipline, of Celebration

I've been meaning to write something on here for quite a while, but I have told myself that I didn't really have the time to do so.  I'm now realizing that the very thing I have wanted to write is preventing me from writing it.  You see, this whole season of life is not only hard, but it's difficult to search for, find, and hold onto joy.  Some very good friends who happen to live in the Chicago area sent us the wonderful gift of the newest Rend Collective compact disc (does everyone know now-a-days that those two words are the meaning behind CD?).  Anyway, the first track on the album begins like this:

We're choosing celebration

Breaking into freedom

You're the song

You're the song

Of our hearts

It continues...

In the shadows

In the sorrows

In the desert

When the pain hits

You are constant

Ever-present

You're the song of my heart

If you haven't had the chance to listen to this album, I would highly recommend it.  This song has been resonating in my mind/heart for many weeks.  But, there's one specific word that I've been wrestling with...choosing.  Am I choosing celebration during this season?  In Richard Foster's book, Celebration of Discipline, he concludes the book with the discipline of celebration stating, "That is why I have placed celebration at the end of this study.  Joy is the end result of the Spiritual Disciplines' functioning in our lives."  Choosing celebration is only possible when we engage in the discipline of bathing our hearts in communion with God.  When we commune with God, we experience "breaking into freedom" because we learn more fully that He is constant and ever-present.  Only then, can we experience joy (which happens to be part of the fruit of the Spirit).  Only then, can we choose celebration because of who God is and what He continues to do.  

Richard Foster states, "Scripture commands us to live in a spirit of thanksgiving in the midst of all situations; it does not command us to celebrate the presence of evil."  Today, I struggle with this whole concept.  Honestly, I read these words, and I'm not exactly sure how to grasp them all.  I do know that God loves Ari.  I do know that God loves Jenny.  And, I do know that God loves me.  I continue to struggle to choose celebrating during this season; however, I am confident in my calling.  I am called to rejoice in the Lord always.  I am called to not be anxious about anything.  I am called to pray and petition to God with thanksgiving in my heart.  And because I believe what Scripture says in Philippians, the peace of God WILL guard my heart and mind.  As peace transcends all that I can comprehend, I will celebrate who God is and what He continues to do in healing and restoring our son.

This past week, we celebrated Ari's first birthday in a hospital room at Doernbecher Children's Hospital.  We celebrated life.  We celebrated God's forming of Ari in the womb.  We celebrated the blessing that our son has been to us over the past year.  We celebrated who God continues to be through this season...constant and ever-present.

Thank you for celebrating along the way through your phone calls, cards, gifts, facebook posts and messages, and text messages.