Safe to Celebrate

Celebration: Knowing that every good gift is from God and a reason to party.

Of all the disciplines I’ve practiced over the years, celebration is the one I have struggled with the most. Celebration often begins with gratefulness, which leads to joy and when done right carries over into a jig. While I start well, I just can’t seem, with much consistency, to pull off the joy and the jig. 

I have spent the majority of my life with children and this is not an issue for them. They are perpetually party ready. I have been to countless tea parties and been asked to dance by people under three foot tall at least twice a week for two decades. But I’m always feeding off their celebration, it’s rarely my own. 

Lately though I’ve been paying attention to their partying ways, trying to grab a few bread crumbs from the celebration table. I found that they don’t even count their blessings! For shame, they aren’t even overtly thankful! After spending an evening with six of my favorite young friends, I realized celebration begins with an all encompassing sense of safety. These children can party because they feel safe. 

Here’s the difference. When I start to count my blessings, I do begin to feel joy and the jig, but before I can say ​“party streamers”, my joy is hijacked by the need to feel safe. The ​“what if’s” begin to ring in my ears, and I’m back where I started. 

But my young friends live in the land of safety, they are free to party at a moment’s notice. 

Listening to Richard Foster has given me many gifts, but maybe one of the greatest is the saying, ​“The Kingdom of God is not in danger.” Dallas Willard often said, ​“The universe is a perfectly safe place to be.” Anybody with ears or eyes knows this is crazy talk. The world is not safe — but the kingdom of God is. Our God is a redemptive God and there is nothing he can’t turn around for good — and that’s some serious safety. 

So the LORD and I are working this out. I count my blessings and he says, ​“See, I can be trusted. You are safe.” I’m going to keep gathering crumbs from my young friends, but I’m also practicing the merengue just in case.