A birthday is celebrated at the completion of a year – so when I turn 49 this month today, I will be entering into my 50th year. Biblically speaking, this will be my Year of Jubilee.
I did a little reading about the practice of the Year of Jubilee in anticipation of the coming year, wanting to mark this one in some way a little more significantly than other birthdays. Some takeaways from this research:
- The year of Jubilee is a radical idea, marked every 50th year (following the completion of seven sevens).
- It provides a socioeconomic reset, and by such a reset, would prevent cycles of intergenerational poverty
- Captives were to be set free, debts forgiven, and land restored
- It was a special, set-apart year of celebration, rest, and abundance
When Jesus began his ministry, he declared himself to be the fulfilment of the Jubilee – our sin debts could be forgiven, we were offered true and lasting freedom, and our future was restored.
In recognition and gratitude of this great gift, I thought I would try to mark my own personal “Year of Jubilee”, but what could I do to celebrate a whole year? People take trips, have parties, take up new hobbies…these are all wonderful ideas, but I didn’t feel like they were the right options for me – I was looking for something that felt richer, deeper.
This week I rewatched an old favorite – The Shawshank Redemption – and was taken in again by the theme of hope, exemplified by Andy Dufresne and reflected in these words to his friend Red, to “get busy living, or get busy dying”. These instructions aren’t a one time command – they are a way of being, each and every day. So I’ve decided to work on celebrating daily in the following ways, in no particular order:
- Celebrate through movement – by walks and weights and boats and bikes, with gratitude for a body that still works pretty well.
- Celebrate through learning – by reading and practice, with gratitude for a mind that is still capable of new ideas and thoughts and skills
- Celebrate through quiet and observation – by prayer and reflection with gratitude for all the little things in my day-to-day that often go unnoticed
- Celebrate through hospitality – by invitation, with gratitude for the the relationships I get to cultivate and nourish
Some of these will be easier than others, and I have no doubt that I will look back and kick myself for forgetting instead of remembering. One year from now, when I mark the completion of 50 years, I want to say that I took each day and squeezed out all the juice, the sweet and the sour, and marked it with intention.
I want to say that I got busy living.
Wind and Bone 