Karen and I just returned from a long trip away from home and we’re celebrating today. The fact that it’s Cinco de Mayo, makes it official. It’s a day set aside for celebration – so why shouldn’t we? For starters, today we’re celebrating no jet lag after 14 hours of travel. No disasters happened while we were gone and we went to sleep in our own bed and woke up to a beautiful spring day.
One of the positive trends in our country is that we’re becoming more Hispanic. Maybe you’re among the xenophobic few who don’t see this as something to celebrate. If so, consider this: Hispanics are in many ways more American than a lot of Americans. They’ve got the DNA that brought a generation of immigrants here. They’re more family-focused and they’re harder workers than the norm. In a lot of sectors of the economy today, when you want to get something done, you hire a team of Hispanics.
And yes, they’ve got this day. And those of us who love Hispanics need to make common cause with them and join in the fun. There’s a lot of good news out there and we should be among the first to celebrate it. This evening the Barnes family is going to do exactly that. All five of the kids plus our new kid, Joe, are going to have one of Karen’s great meals. We’re going to crank the music up and spin around to it. And I for one intend to be laughing.
God loves a celebration. Heaven is a party. When those of us who follow Jesus get together, we reflect that in our singing, dancing, and general spiritual carousing. It should be a blast to be a Christian. I don’t get Christians who are boring or overly serious. Better to count your blessings and whoop it up. Whatever a celebration looks like to you, let me just suggest that you need to be doing it more. Louder, longer, and with more abandon!
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Awesome… I have this prayer I pray first thing upon waking in the morning…
Good Morning, God. Good Morning, Jesus. Good Morning, Holy Spirit. I love You. I don’t know what’s going to happen today but You do, and I trust You. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.
My niece sent me a message a little while ago, challenging me to start my day with, “This is going to be a great day. I wonder how it’s going to shape up.”
So…. I added that to the end of my little prayer… i added, “I know this is going to be a great day, Father God. I can hardly wait to see how it’s going to shape up.”
And then I thought another minute or two, and added just one more line… so the whole thing goes…
Good Morning, God. Good Morning, Jesus. Good Morning, Holy Spirit. I love You. I don’t know what’s going to happen today but You do, and I trust You. I know this is going to be a great day, Father God. I can hardly wait to see how it’s going to shape up. Help me to find the blessings in it. Help me to BE part of the blessings in it, and oh, Father, help me to remember where the blessings originate. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.”
Now… that’s a daily cause for celebration!
Thanks Seth, I’ve actually been so caught up in my “deeds” and what I should be doing for the Kingdom that I haven’t taken the time to be free and enjoy myself celebrating my life with my Maker! I am free and Jesus LIKES to party
I’m celebrating that God gifted me with Doug Bureman as my husband on this day many years ago!
That’s a good prayer, Vickie. I need to do something like that.
Yea for no jet lag! Yea for Cinco de Mayo!
ha – Growing up in texas surrounded by mexicans and mexican food :), I try not to ever miss a cinco de mayo celebration … We celebrated here by enjoying Corona’s & lime (and of course, chips & homemade salsa) at our Beauty for Ashes bible study last night. We should’ve danced, but it was our last study in the Song of Solomon with a great injunction to get busy SERVING. 🙂
Your last paragraph reminds me of a post not long ago from James Ryle that really exemplified how the power of our JOY coupled with our story of how Christ made it possible has a big impact on drawing others to Christ…
Celebrating with family is, of course, one of the strengths of Mexican (and Hispanic) culture. With all of our talk of “family values” we Americans have much to learn from Latino culture. So, there’s no better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than to gather around the diner table as a family!