“It Takes Grace To Celebrate”

As you may have noticed the BLOG took a break for the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s been a great few days, but I need a two week vacation to recover… I’m exhausted. Our life is very blessed and very full. With that said, it really takes grace to celebrate. Let me give you an idea what I’m talking about.

Our week began with our daughter and family arriving from Nashville for a visit. When you have family arriving, the party starts…. all good, but you better have some endurance built into your system. My wife gets stronger with each celebration…her battery gets charged with each event; my battery gets depleted. 

We co-hosted Thanksgiving for some 45…. a lot of work by many went into the preparation, incredible food, set up….. starting at 3:30…we ended at 11:30. It was GREAT, but I was shot…. “the spirit is willing , but the flesh is weak.”  So, the next day I kept going  with usual schedule of mass and prayer, trip to Physical Therapy for a good working over, and then travel to our eldest daughter’s home for a surprise 50^th birthday party. Once again it was great… the food and celebration and “surprise tension”… we left at 4:30pm and got home at 10:30pm. I don’t have time to mention the sprinkling in of two trips to the hospital for grandchildren, one daughter fighting sickness, another daughter with a very bad back. Now, I was an observer for a lot of this, but my head was still spinning. It’s not easy to celebrate…. you need a lot of strength to celebrate….”party poopers need not apply”. 

“So Dave, what is the point of this BLOG…. as I understand this, you were on the bench for a lot of this action… why are you tired?” Hmmmmmm, that’s a very good point Chuck ….. why am I exhausted? On one hand I did some stuff, I did some work …. on the other hand I did a lot less than I used to do. Maybe it’s because we can live vicariously (in our imagination) through others. I didn’t take my grandson to the hospital, but in my imagination I was there with him…. I have experienced being there in the past…. and it wore me out thinking about it. 

“Okay speaking of being worn out, this BLOG is wearing me out; let’s get back on track …. what’s the point? Jesus shows us the point, he tells us: “watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Mt. 26:41-42) If we are going to survive and be victorious in times of trial and times of wonderful celebration, we need to “watch and pray”. Every situation involves some spiritual warfare and we need to be ready. Judy and I have been praying the St. Francis prayer before we go out to a meeting or celebration or appointment, asking the Holy Spirit to help us “seek not so much to be understood, but to try to understand”. This helps when I’m in a conversation that’s not focused on ME.

Opportunities to bring the Lord will be all around us during these holiday times. Let’s tighten our belt, say our prayers and GO. We may be surprised that good things happen and we may even get refreshed and our batteries recharged. And that would be very good news.