Birthday Musings “…But Such As I Have Give I Thee”

I’ve always dreaded my birthdays. Of the 33 that I’ve been blessed to mark as of today, 3/4 of them have been completely unremarkable. A couple of them—milestone birthdays at that—have been downright awful. So I was down in the doldrums from around the first of November and the closer it got to B-day, the more unsettled I became. Last week, I was just plain stressed. After the year I’ve had, I honestly wasn’t looking forward to the day. Then around Thursday, I saw a quote on my Twitter timeline that said something along the lines of, “the best way to get over a problem is to do something good for others.” (Don’t remember who said it and I can’t find anything like it in the Googles, so maybe it was from a Twitter philosopher. 🤷)

Whatever the case, it really spoke to me and I began to think about what I could do to help someone, instead of sitting at home moping. I didn’t have any money, so naturally I became fixated on that, but on Saturday it hit me: I have the Gospel. Why not share that? Silver and gold have I none, but I have a bunch of ministry material from church (Christ Embassy), an able body, and JUTC bus fare is cheap. So today, I went out bearing 33 copies of our daily devotionals, Rhapsody of Realities (one for each year of my life),  and I hit the downtown Kingston waterfront.

I met a lot of people. Some weren’t interested and wouldn’t even look at me, let alone take the free book. Some took the book but weren’t here for conversations. Some took the book and talked with me. And, best of all, two persons made decisions for the Lord! Whoever was behind that quote was absolutely right. I am still on cloud nine. Not even getting the sexy rose gold MacBook Air of my dreams coulda mek mi feel so good. My God is good o!!

I thank God for allowing me the privilege of seeing another birthday, for opening up my heart and eyes to this opportunity. I thank Him for the seeds I was able to sow, even those that have fallen on less-than-fertile ground. I’ll just keep watering them all with prayers and have the expectation that somewhere along the line, another person will minister to them and that seed will spring up and bear fruit.

All in all, it’s been a great day. Maybe I’ll make this an annual activity. Imagine being 99 years old and walking around trying to get 99 people to come to the Lord. Ha!

On another note, I’m still open to receiving gifts, so I’ll just drop my wishlist rightchea…

Kthankbai!