BY KELSIE PETERSEN
Celebration. The word conjures images of smiling groups of people, whether gathered around festively decorated tables or in a backyard with brightly colored tablecloths spread with summer BBQ food. We celebrate religious holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and cultural/national holidays. In fact, people all over the world celebrate things that are important to them, and what we celebrate indicates what we believe and value.
As a believer, my celebration of Christmas and Easter has deepened in meaning and expression, and I notice a big difference in my anticipation of these seasons, moving from looking forward to food, friends and family (and maybe presents) to celebrating out of my joy and gratitude for the event being remembered: the birth and resurrection of Christ.
As I think about how we “celebrated” as Adventists, I realize that, for me, at least, celebration was largely divorced from deep meaning. My childhood memories of growing up in an Adventist family as part of a small, close-knit church congregation are full of fond recollections from nearly every season. There were fundraisers for the local church school, Christmas banquets, corn roasts in the fall, church work-bees in the spring, and sometimes game or activity nights planned just for the fun of it. There was laughter and good cheer. We looked forward to these events. In my family, we celebrated Christmas with the tree and the gifts and the dinner. We also celebrated Thanksgiving and birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s Day, but I put them more in the category of “enjoyable events” than celebrations.
Yet these memories are mostly secular. Significantly, Adventism marked spiritual things with somberness and seriousness but seldom with joy. In my experience, there was plenty of room for happy times and levity with my church congregation, but those times were never connected to “church” or spiritual things. Church services and vespers were a serious time, bordering on somber. I remember the few times laughter erupted in a church service as being a little surprising. Spiritual practices, such as Bible study or Sabbath School lesson study, were to be done with a certain amount of solemnity, and prayer was always sober and formal.
Joy Separated From Celebration
Looking back, it seems that we were conditioned effectively to divorce joy and laughter and celebration from anything spiritual, and since the vast majority of our spiritual focus happened on Sabbath, at church, it seemed joy was effectively divorced from our relating to God as well. Over the years, I saw efforts to make “God” and church “fun” and joyful, but it always felt manufactured. It’s interesting to me that I noticed this bifurcation of spirituality and joy at the same time I was trying to figure out, as someone who had been born again in spite of my Adventism, why my Adventist friends and family were not excited to find out about the simple gospel message I had learned at my Christian school.
When I think back I realize that, as an Adventist, my goal was to make every day as “normal” as possible, as challenge-free as possible. I was driven to streamline the system, as it were.
I think that this refusal to embrace the reality and the impact of each day came, at least in part, out of the belief that I had to keep moving towards that elusive perfection of character Adventist “salvation” demanded. As much as I hate the movie Groundhog Day, I think that I was living my own version of it: “If I can just do tomorrow the same as today—only BETTER—I’ll be ok!” In other words, if I allowed myself to feel joy or disappointment or any defining emotion, I would mar my day and skid off my road to perfection.
The reason for my controlled life, I see now, goes down to the root. In Adventism, my celebration only went as deep as a fun time with friends and family, only as deep as I could go without jeopardizing a day that was “better than yesterday.” As a believer, on the other hand, the root of my joy is Christ, my Salvation. My joy comes FROM that salvation. My celebration comes from that salvation. Everything I have is because of Jesus. The fact that Adventism misses the gospel explains why efforts to make “God” and church more “enjoyable” showed themselves to be hollow and manufactured.
As believers, our celebration is rooted in joy, and our joy is rooted in the gospel, giving us hope and peace, and filling us with thanksgiving and praise. Romans 15:13 says,
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Psalms are full of examples of celebration and joy, and how much more can we celebrate than the Psalmists, living in the full reality of a risen Savior and a completed atonement!
I looked up the definitions of the word “celebrate,” and while none of them indicate it must be done with joy and gladness, I did find some interesting instances where the word we read as “celebrate” literally translates as “laugh” (2 Samuel 6, 1 Chronicles 13 and 15). Recently, I’ve been thinking about how this joy, this ability to more deeply celebrate seasons like Christmas and Easter, can actually spill over into celebrations of so many other things. What else can I find to approach with an attitude of celebration, because of Jesus?
One of my favorite birthday traditions I’ve developed with my family is decorating the dining room the night before a child’s birthday. In the first years of doing this, I loved seeing their reactions, their joy and wonder, when they came out of their bedrooms in the morning and saw what we had done just for them. I have to admit that over the past 14 months or so, however, I’ve grown weary of this effort, and it’s started to feel like “one more thing to do.” Now the boys know what to expect, and that initial instant gratification I felt has faded.
So, why am I still birthday decorating? Is it possible that I can root my desire to decorate the dining room, to buy a gift and to bake a cake in celebrating the gift God has given our family in the life of the birthday boy? I think it’s “normal” to acknowledge a child on a birthday, but what if my celebration of this special day were to come from an actual root of thankfulness to Christ? Because of Christ, I can not only make a fun day for my son, enjoy seeing him enjoy special attention and appreciation, but I can express my deep celebration of what the Lord has done in my life, in our family, by giving him to us. As a Christian, I can celebrate the Lord’s gift of my son with deep joy, with hope, peace, thanksgiving and praise.
Now, what if I celebrated other occasions in the same way? What if I celebrated Canada Day (or whatever your national “day” may be) with joy, hope, peace, thanksgiving and praise (rooted in Christ, because my hope for my country dwindles with every passing day)? What if I celebrated long weekends with joy, hope, peace, thanksgiving and praise…because of Jesus? What if I celebrated my kids’ milestones in this way? What if I celebrated every Sunday? And here’s a crazy thought—what if I celebrated every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday AND Saturday out of joy, hope, peace, thanksgiving and praise for whatever God has given me, in Christ, for that day?
I’m not suggesting to pull out all the stops and decorate, gift, cook, and host on all of these days, I’m saying, what if I remembered to celebrate deeply, acknowledging with joy, hope, peace, thanksgiving, and praise each day for what it is, no matter if it’s a birthday or Tuesday?
Part of coming out of the fog of Adventism into the light of Christ is NOTICING. It’s noticing the things to which we were blind before; it’s noticing with awe and wonder the new life we’ve been born (again) into. Yes, we still live in this fallen world, and yes, more than ever, it seems fraught with pain and trials. Those are real and need to be acknowledged and addressed, and there will be times for sorrow and mourning, but what I’ve realized is that there is reason to celebrate holidays, special days, and every day, wholeheartedly out of gratitude to Christ for whatever that day is. †
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Thank you Kelsie for this wonderful article. I’ve been studying my way out of Adventism for a few years now and am still amazed that other formers have come to the same conclusions as myself. I was stopped in my tracks and the tears came as I read “my goal was to make every day as “normal” as possible, as challenge-free as possible. I was driven to streamline the system, as it were. ” And the next paragraph, “If I can just do tomorrow the same as today—only BETTER—I’ll be ok!” In other words, if I allowed myself to feel joy or disappointment or any defining emotion, I would mar my day and skid off my road to perfection.” To this day I deny any feelings of joy or excitement and always minimize disappointment or any defining emotion so as to stay between the lines. By the grace of God I will joy in my salvation and what he has already done and celebrate all that he gives from an eternal and complete perspective. I thank God for this ministry and you for writing this article. yours in Christ Jesus, Eric Griffith
Hi, Eric! I’m so sorry, I just now saw your comment. Better late than never, I suppose! Thank you for your kind words. I always find myself marveling at the joy I feel now, when thinking about the Lord, or about His words in Scripture, than when I was entrenched in Adventism. It’s amazing how, while each of our paths are different and unique, there are so many similarities in our discoveries and conclusions. Merry Christmas to you and your family!