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Freedom from anxiety and care forms the basis for celebration. Because we know He cares for us, we can cast all our care upon Him. God has turned our mourning into dancing.
Celebration is central to all the Spiritual Disciplines. Without a joyful spirit of festivity, the Disciplines become dull, death-breathing tools in the hands of modern Pharisees.
Every Discipline should be characterized by carefree gaiety and a sense of thanksgiving. Joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).
As Foster puts it, “Often I am inclined to think that joy is the motor, the thing that keeps everything else going. Without joyous celebration to infuse the other Disciplines, we will sooner or later abandon them. Joy produces energy. Joy makes us strong.” (See my post on the Fruit of the Spirit here.)
The Path to Joy
In the spiritual life only one thing will produce genuine joy, and that is obedience. (See my recent post covering Eugene Peterson’s A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.)
There is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to “trust and obey.” The hymn writer received his inspiration from the Master Himself.
Joy comes through obedience to Christ, and joy results from obedience to Christ. Without obedience joy is hollow and artificial. To elicit genuine celebration, obedience must work itself into the ordinary fabric of our daily lives.
God brings about the transformation of our lives through the Disciplines, and we will not know genuine joy until there is a transforming work within us.
The spirit of celebration will not be in us until we have learned to be “careful for nothing.” And we will never have a carefree indifference to things until we trust God. This is why the Jubilee was such a crucial celebration in the Old Testament. No one would dare celebrate the Jubilee unless they had a deep trust in God’s ability to provide for their needs.
The decision to set the mind on the higher things of life is an act of the will. That is why celebration is a Discipline. It is not something that falls on our heads. It is the result of a consciously chosen way of thinking and living.
The Benefits of Celebration
Consider the various benefits of celebration. First, it saves us from taking ourselves too seriously. It is an occupational hazard of devout folk to become stuffy bores. This should not be. Of all people, we should be the most free, alive, interesting. Celebration adds a note of gaiety, festivity, hilarity to our lives.
Celebration also can be an effective antidote for the periodic sense of sadness that can constrict and oppress the heart. Depression is an epidemic today and celebration can help stem the tide.
Another benefit of celebration is its ability to give us perspective. We can laugh at ourselves. We come to see that the causes we champion are not nearly so monumental as we would like to believe. In celebration, the high and the mighty regain their balance and the weak and lowly receive new stature. Who can be high or low at the festival of God?
Finally, an interesting characteristic of celebration is that it tends toward more celebration. Joy begets joy. Laughter begets laughter. It is one of those few things in life that we multiply by giving. Kierkegaard says that “humor is always a concealed pair.”
The Practice of Celebration
One way to practice celebration is through singing, dancing, shouting. Because of the goodness of God, the heart breaks forth into psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Worship, praise, adoration flow from the inner chambers. In Psalm 150 we see the celebration of the people of God with trumpet and lute and harp, with timbrel and dance, with strings and pipe and loud clashing cymbals. Singing, dancing, and noise-making are not required forms of celebration. They are examples only, to impress upon us that the earth indeed is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.
Laughing is another way we practice celebration.
The old adage that laughter is the best medicine has a lot going for it. Indeed, Norman Cousins in his book, Anatomy of an Illness, discusses how he used the therapy of laughter to help him overcome a crippling disease. In his hospital bed, Cousins watched old Marx Brothers films and “Candid Camera” shows, and the genuine belly laughter he experienced seemed to have an anesthetic effect and gave him pain-free sleep. Doctors even confirmed the salutary effect of laughter on his body chemistry.
Why not! Jesus had a sense of humor—some of His parables are positively comical. There is even such a thing as “holy laughter,” a frequent phenomenon in various revival movements.
So, poke fun at yourself. Enjoy wholesome jokes and clever puns. Relish good comedy. Learn to laugh; it is a discipline to be mastered. Let go of the everlasting burden of always needing to sound profound.
Another way to encourage celebration is to accent the creative gifts of fantasy and imagination. Harvey Cox observes that “man’s celebrative and imaginative faculties have atrophied.”
Let us also relish the creativity of others. Those who create sculptures and paintings and plays and music are a great gift to us. We can organize art shows to display their work. We can sing their music in intimate gatherings and formal concerts. We can arrange for dramatic productions of our friend’s works. We can have a family art show and feature the kid’s paintings from school. Why not! It is great fun and builds community.
We can also make family events into times of celebration and thanksgiving. This is particularly true of the various rites of passage in our culture like birthdays, graduations, marriages, anniversaries. One couple Foster knows plants a tree for every wedding anniversary. On their farm they now have a little forest of some forty trees that bear silent witness to their love and fidelity. We can also celebrate lesser, but equally important events like finishing a major project, securing a job, receiving a raise.
Take advantage of the festivals of our culture and really celebrate. What a great celebration we can make of Christmas! And what about Easter? Forget the spring style show and celebrate the power of the resurrection. Make family Easter plays. Revive the May Day celebrations. Go pick flowers and deliver them to your neighbors and friends.
Celebration gives us the strength to live in all the other Disciplines. When faithfully pursued, the other Disciplines bring us deliverance from those things that have made our lives miserable for years which, in turn, evokes increased celebration. Thus, an unbroken circle of life and power is formed.
Finis
We have come to the end of our study on the Spiritual Disciplines, but only to the beginning of our journey. We have seen how meditation heightens our spiritual sensitivity which, in turn, leads us into prayer. Very soon we discover that prayer involves fasting as an accompanying means. Informed by these three Disciplines, we can effectively move into study which gives us discernment about ourselves and the world in which we live.
Through simplicity we live with others in integrity. Solitude allows us to be genuinely present to people when we are with them. Through submission we live with others without manipulation, and through service we are a blessing to them.
Confession frees us from ourselves and releases us to worship. Worship opens the door to guidance. All the Disciplines freely exercised bring forth the doxology of celebration.
The classical Disciplines of the spiritual life beckon us to the Himalayas of the Spirit. Now we stand at the timberline awed by the snowy peaks before us. We step out in confidence with our Guide who has blazed the trail and conquered the highest summit.
