Happy Birthday Stevie

Today is fellow blogger and friend Steve's birthday! Happy Birthday, Steve. Sorry I didn't get to talk to you today. Glad you and Joel got to visit, though. There are not many "Happy Birthday" songs. It's kind of hard to improve on the traditional "Happy Birthday to You". It has all the right elements. It's a happy tune (kind of essential), it states the fact of the matter (it is your birthday), and it even has your name in it (we all like to hear our names). I did hear a death and dirge one once: Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday There's Pollution In the Air People Dyin' Everywhere Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday The Lane family in our church has a habit of singing "happy birthday" in the loudest, most obnoxious, out-of-tune manner possible...it's fun...they fall apart in a big laugh afterwards. I'm annoyed by the restaurants who have all their servers come out and do a version of Happy Birthday. Usually it's loud, unenthusiastic, has that horrendous clapping ... and even sometimes it's in Spanish. This is only acceptable at Hooters, but that is another post. Birthdays.... I've had 40 of them ... and believe me I'm grateful for each one! They do seem to come more often now, but that's something that old people say, and maybe I shouldn't go around saying that yet. At my age, I'm supposed to have a mid-life crisis. I have been trying to think of how I can do that without another woman, without going into incredible debt buying a foreign sports sedan, or getting a newer younger wardrobe. I don't think any of those things will do the trick, though. I am thinking more about my life in the big arena of God's kingdom ... and how I sometimes feel very small and insignificant. Yet at the same time I know that God has used me in ways I will never be able to understand ... and that is an exciting potential. So when I have a birthday in a few weeks, I will rejoice in His will ... even though the world is telling me I'm done. Happy Birthday, Steve. God has used you to bless my life in some unexpected ways. Be blessed, my friend. I love you.