How to Harness the Power of Celebration in Your Everyday Life

Photo by Stephanie Harvey

It all started with a chicken salad sandwich. This was not the kind of pre-packaged chicken sandwich that you scarf down after a Walmart run because your stomach is growling. No limp, soggy, colorless, or overly crunchy chicken salad here. This was a chicken salad sandwich that I intentionally bought croissants for. This was a chicken salad sandwich with the perfect balance of sweet with grapes and dried cranberries and tangy with yogurt dill dressing. The chicken was not overcooked and thus not dry. And, after my husband ate it, he made a point to say, “Hey, that’s a great sandwich! Are there any more?” My chicken salad sandwiches are associated with last year’s Valentine’s Day outing (one of our best) and quality evenings with my husband just chatting at our kitchen table. They’re a sure winner in our house. And, this week, they were a special pick-me-up for my body after a long day. They were an encouragement to my soul to be able to bless my husband with nourishment he enjoyed. And they were a call to my spirit to remember to celebrate in the midst of everyday life.


Let me preface all of this by saying that in processing life and feelings and circumstances last week, all I could think to write about leading into this week was anger. Now, certainly anger has its place (especially within the stress-mongered, frazzled, ex-pat life at times), and it will probably make an appearance on this blog at some point. But, once I worked through the anger and tears of a week that simply made the world feel like a hostile place, the solution I found waiting for me like a daisy in the midst of dandelions, was everyday celebration.


In these winter months (or within an ex-pat life), days can start blending into each other. It’s not that there aren’t things going on—there’s plenty. It’s not that our brains aren’t being challenged to problem solve—they are. It’s just that the grayness or the unchanging rhythms of life can leave a horizon with nothing worth catching the eye, and months can drag by where it feels like we have nothing to look forward to. Life doesn’t have to look exactly the same every day to become a grind at times. That blandness can start out as sheer boredom or a hum of frustration beneath the surface and soon give way to full-blown melancholy. For me, it’s not even the blandness necessarily, it’s the little inconveniences or unexpected conflicts that seem small by themselves but soon build until I just hit a wall within myself. Last week, that looked like having a respiratory virus and not sleeping through the night. It looked like meals turning out to be less than appetizing even if my sweet husband is too kind to just say so. It looked like long lines at the bank and the usual name misspellings. It looked like feeling invaded by cultural differences and a lack of consideration and stewing in anger for days afterward. It looked like perpetually feeling behind with housework. It looked like overwhelm by all of the good “shoulds” that I really would like to do but don’t always have the energy or time for. And it looked like the question of, “Why does it seem like no one is interested in what I have to offer?”


For you, it might look like the lack of sunshine outside, scraping your car windshield yet again, and forgetting your gloves. It might look like a toddler throwing another tantrum and locking yourself in the bathroom just to try to breathe through it. It might look like an empty chair where a loved one used to sit or another morning of chronic pain. It might look like walking through the grocery store with a calculator in hand making the choices of what you can afford this week. Whatever your daily grind or cross to bear, I think this message rings true for all of us: There is power in celebration.


One of the areas where my husband and I have differed greatly in family backgrounds and have had some interesting misfires in marriage is in celebration. I grew up in a family that knows how to make things special even if they were doing so on a budget. Growing up, my family knew how to give us things to look forward to. Some of those things were based on routine—every Sunday we’d eat lunch together and then rest together (taking naps in the living room, watching a movie, or taking a walk together). After a hectic week or not having as much quality time with each other in the evenings, Saturdays and Sundays were something to look forward to because they were a change of pace. Some of those celebrations were based on tradition—going to Grandmom’s meant going to yard sales together, going to the fair with Nannie always included going to see the horse shows because my grandfather had participated as a young man and that’s how they’d met, going camping meant tubing down the river, New Year’s Eve meant Welch’s sparkling grape juice in fancy glasses, and going to a drive-in movie meant that Mom had a carful of snacks and cozy blankets at the ready. It is said that traditions are what solidifies a family and gives it a sense of identity. While I don’t think that it’s the sole thing that sets one family apart from another or provides a foundation, I do think that traditions contribute to identity, security, and the safety of both predictability and the magic of something to look forward to. Other family celebrations were built on spontaneous creativity—one time, my dad sent up a tent in our living room and “camped out” with us for a weekend. He’d stay up all night preparing Christmas treasure hunts for us with rhyming clues. We’d play a spontaneous game of basketball as a family. We’d head to the local Dairy King with Nannie for her favorite raspberry cone, or we’d play Kick the Cans after the bonfire at my grandparents’ house.


Now that I am an adult, I recognize that this isn’t something that everyone just naturally experiences in life. It takes intentionality and a mindset. When you’re in survival mode, it’s hard to see the things worth celebrating. When you’re worried about tomorrow or even about today, you can’t see the beauty right in front of you, and nothing seems special about the ordinary day.


God is a God of celebration. We need only to look at the ways He commanded the Israelites to celebrate, the rhythms He established for rest and worship, and the way that celebrations always pointed back to Himself and His goodness. He was their reason to celebrate. He is also our underlying reason to celebrate. For the Israelites, the grind was one of sacrifices for sins. Our grind, nowadays, can often make us forget what He sacrificed, how great a price it was, and how He has made our lives worth celebrating.


For the Israelites, celebration was about remembering who God is and how He had saved them time and time again. He was so often associated with punishment and correction for the Israelites that I have to wonder if He wasn’t also so insistent on celebration so that they might also associate Him with joy, pleasure, rest, and something to look forward to. In remembering who God is, they also remembered who they were and kept their identity as God’s people alive in their own hearts. Celebration for the Israelites was also about community and togetherness. A time of unity and family. As always, God is relational and thrives on connection, so He chose to foster ways that the Israelites could stay connected in relationship.


If we even look scientifically at how God designed our brains, we weren’t made for monotony. Our minds are geared toward learning new things, problem solving, and turning over new challenges until we’ve reached solutions. And God placed eternity in our hearts because it is good to have something to look forward to.


In an article titled, “Living a Life of Celebration” on Bible.org, celebration is declared a spiritual discipline. How would our lives change if we could put as much weight and importance on celebrating God and life and the little joys that reflect His love as much as we insist on church attendance, are adamant about Bible reading, and maintain a prayer life? I believe that God relishes our enjoyment of His creation and smiles when we experience the pleasures of life that also bring fullness to our souls and health to our spirits. Not all celebrations are created equal. In short, I think of celebration as a returning to the life and self and connection with God that God always intended for us to have. Perhaps, it is meager in comparison to what is to come, but a true celebration brings peace to a weary mind, forcing us to enjoy the present. A celebration that reflects the design of a loving Father brings rest and freedom to a weary body and renewed connection to a hungry spirit. In short, to be a true, life-giving celebration, it shouldn’t be divisive to our being.


By this point, you might already be on board with the idea of celebration as important—not just because society says so in many cases but because our humanity calls out for the fullness of life and our Creator made us capable of experiencing joy and pleasure. So, how can celebration look? Beyond the usual of Christmas gifts and birthday cakes, what does it mean to live a life of everyday celebration?


The reality is that celebration starts as a condition of the heart. We are certainly capable of going through the motions of celebration without ever connecting with anything or anyone. We can spend lavish money on decorations or fancy food or gifts or luxurious experiences without ever actually engaging in spiritual celebration. Children thrill over celebration because their little lives are still encapsulated by wonder. Their everyday discoveries and innocence open the doors of their hearts to receive the world around them as a gift rather than as an enemy. We adults often struggle more with jadedness and defensive tendencies. Truly, beginning to foster wonder again may require some intentionality and mindfulness, but that shift in perspective is priceless in how we can carry out our lives. I can’t count how many times in my life I have gone from feeling oppressed, discouraged, attacked, helpless, and hopeless to feeling relieved, protected, cared for, assured, and confident just because I chose to tap into a small voice saying, “Come up here. Let Me show you my perspective from this vantage point.” Returning to the Father’s embrace, remembering His goodness, re-living the testimonies of His faithfulness have brought renewed celebration to my life every time I have chosen to stop nursing the growing negativity threatening to control my thoughts and drive my emotions off of a cliff. So, celebration begins with a choice. Will I have an attitude of wonder rather than fear? Will I believe in God’s goodness or will I doubt? Will I seek connection with the Papa who cares for me or will I shut Him out in my effort to defend myself? Will I look for the beauty and love and provision or will I look for the ugly, the hate, and the lack? Inevitably, for better or for worse, we’ll see what we look for.


Once our choice is made, as individuals, what are some actions that can keep up our momentum of connecting with God and love and good? Here are some practical ideas:


1) “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 10:5, NIV
If the “we” of Corinthians could do it, that means we can too. We have the power to destroy the lies our surrounding circumstances can tell us that would try to snatch our experience of celebration and our ongoing connection with God. And, the battlefield for doing so is in our thoughts. I have had seasons of life where I have needed to surrender a worry or a hurt a thousand times a day because my brain wants to keep picking it up to harp on it. But, that conscious practice of stopping myself before my brain runs away on a tangent and verbally or mentally placing that area in God’s hands has gradually led me out of some dark seasons. And, another helpful tip to keep in mind is to not handicap yourself by what you are taking in on a regular basis whether that be music or television or the news or whatever. It’s not about legalistic rules to lord over everyone; it’s about seeking out whatever you know leads you to “pure, lovely, true, admirable” thoughts (and avoiding whatever you already know doesn’t…this can look different for everyone).


2) Immerse yourself in the Word and truth of who He is. As previously mentioned, part of God-led celebration is remembering and reminding ourselves of who He is. If you’ve kept a prayer journal, go back and read the things you were praying about and the things that God has already answered. If you don’t keep a prayer journal, maybe now would be a good time to start. Seek out testimonies of who God has been for someone else because whatever He’s been or done for someone else, He can be and do for you! He’s not a respecter of persons.


3) Take some time to tell God the desires of your heart. Oftentimes, for whatever reason, we feel like we can’t trust God with the desires of our hearts. But God longs for us to feel like we are a team with Him, and He does care about the things that we care about.


4) Take some time to wonder. This can also be very individual. The usual go-to is to immerse yourself in nature—inspect a plant, observe an ant, take a walk up a mountain, walk barefoot in a park. He can feel closer in His creation. But, this could also look like engaging in creativity and connecting with that aspect of Himself that He’s placed inside of you. For me, it’s writing and turning over words and blurting them onto a page until life starts to make some sense and bring some joy again. For others, it could be painting or playing piano. If you’re into astronomy and science, look at the stars or read up on the latest discoveries about the human body. Basically, wherever you start looking for God, I believe that you can find Him.


5) Connect. This aspect is two-fold. First, take some time to engage with God as your Friend. Talk and listen. Sit and just ask Him to visit with you. Listen to worship music and then tell God who you already know He is. This is the part where your spirit is returning to its Maker and its Home. And, beyond connecting with God, also connect with other people in various capacities—don’t just give, also receive. Don’t just talk, also listen. Don’t just serve, also share of your own needs. A great part of the joy in life is finding a flow with another person where there is mutual understanding, mutual giving, mutual receiving, mutual encouraging, mutual challenging, etc. Whatever the context of your connection with other humans, pursue deepening, healthy relationships. As Chris McCandless of Into the Wild discovered after living a life of many experiences, immersion in nature, and wonder, happiness is only real when it is shared. Celebration is cheapened when it’s selfish. That doesn't mean we can't celebrate alone or alone with God, but it does mean that not all of our celebration should take place in that way.


So, how do we harness the power of celebration? We start with a heart turned toward Jesus rather than away from Him in moments of discouragement and in daunting circumstances. It’s not about a trite, superficial attitude of “others in the world have it worse than I do; I should be thankful.” That attitude is often guilt-inducing, and if I’m honest, when someone pushes me to have that attitude, my internal response is to bristle and give some serious side-eye. We all need to know and be affirmed that our emotions are valid regardless of how they square up in comparison to others. But the most patient person to receive our fire-breathing expressions or our weary loads is God the Father. A lot of times, when I am experiencing a certain emotion, I try to pinpoint what exactly it is I am feeling. Then I ask if Jesus has likely ever felt the same. Every single time, I find a way that He probably has. His life validates the emotions of my own.


With my emotions validated, I can choose to change my attitude and my perspective. I can choose to seek the King in all things. I can choose to take each day step by step, inviting wonder to guide me and recognizing the little victories. When Josuan (one of the kids we’ve known here for a long time) broke his leg and was on crutches after three exhausting (and not entirely successful surgeries), he was so fearful that he wouldn’t walk again much less play his beloved soccer. So, I determined that each day, we’d look for the little victories. You managed to stand with crutches? An applause for a little victory! You walked across the room with crutches? Excellent! That’s better than yesterday! And so it went. Within my daily life, though it may seem overly Pollyanna, and I'll admit that I’m not always awesome at it, those little victories can be as simple as this: “Raúl remembered to take the trash out—that’s a relief! And he refilled the soap dispenser. How thoughtful! The accountant finally called after three weeks—great! That’s one less reminder phone call I need to make. I actually managed to make time for writing today! I made one small step to meeting my goal. That’s good.” On the flipside, a life void of the celebration of little victories will inevitably look like unending grumbling: “Sure, Raúl took the trash out, but he left an empty gallon of milk in the refrigerator (Why DO men do this?!) and tracked mud onto my freshly mopped floor. Why is he so inconsiderate? It’s about time the accountant call. I’ve only been waiting for three weeks. *eye roll* Well, I guess it’s good I made time to write today, but what a failure I’ve been at that the whole rest of the week.” Overall, celebration is a returning to faith in God’s goodness, to peace that He is working all things for our good, to the joy that He made us for His pleasure and enjoys our pleasure, to the wonder of how we can find in Him in everything, and to the determination to seek out the treasure in the ordinary rather than to lose ourselves in the dross.


Stay tuned next week for a light-hearted list of the practical, everyday things that spark my wonder, give my heart joy, and are moments of ordinary celebration.