Yesterday, December 18 I turned 39, I know, I know, I’m young. In the past on my birthday I have received gifts that I want, random gifts that I didn’t know excised and clothes that I didn’t want and more. In fact 3 years ago on my 36th birthday I even raised money for some new ink on my arm. This idea of birthday’s is what I grew up knowing, that birthday’s are about people giving you gifts and it being all about you. In reality, our mom’s should get presents on our birthdays.
Well this year I thought about doing something different. For my 39th birthday I decided to raise a bunch of cash and give it all to a Haiti relief and rebuilt fund through One Day’s Wages. I wanted to raise $1000, the amount suggested by the cool folks at One Day’s Wages. This was really hard for me to be honest. It was hard cause I don’t like asking people for money (even though I do that for a living as I am with a non-profit). It was also hard cause I wasn’t asking people to give towards me, but towards something else. And finally it was hard cause I was asking for $1000, a heck of a lot of cash, especially at Christmas.
If I am to live out a life of Justice I need to realize that I don’t need anything (I am fully blessed), and that I need to change my way of thinking. My life was not intended to be all about me, it was intended to be lived for the glory of Jesus and the service of others. This is why we ‘do justice,’ to serve others in obedience to Jesus.
As I mentioned above, this was a hard thing for me to do. My kids gave me a small gift, even though I asked them not to and we had to have a talk on why daddy needed to bring it back. It was hard for me to keep asking for cash over the past 6 day’s leading up to my birthday. I felt like I was pushing people (which I was), and I felt selfish, even though the money wasn’t for me.
The part of the process that motivated me to push on was when Eugene Cho, founder of One Day’s Wages gave me $39 for my $39th birthday. I was shocked, blessed and motivated by his generosity. Well, my birthday is past, and as a result of it people in Haiti are going to be helped. My birthday raised $472.39 ($100 still to come in) for relief work in Haiti. I am overwhelmed, honored and even still a bit embarrassed about asking for so much. Mostly though, I am convinced that we are to live out lives for the service of others.
Thanks to all my friends and family who gave for my birthday, I’ll hit ya up again next year.
