It's Hard to Cage a Party Animal
Newsletter
“It’s Hard to Cage a Party Animal”
I love parties. My idea of the perfect party is me sitting in my recliner with caffeine free Mt. Dew, some cheese dip and chips, a John Wayne movie, and a box of dog biscuits. Those are for the Chihuahuas. They get bored with John Wayne after about two hours. If I’m living on the edge that particular day I will put extra jalapenos in the cheese dip. Sometimes, and this is rare, when I really want to do something off the wall I won’t use the remote control.
It doesn’t get any better than that, unless you attend the Toad Suck Daze festival in Conway, Arkansas. Don’t laugh. It won several awards from the International Festivals and Events Association in 2014, beating out other Arkansas entries, Name that Cousin and CarpFest. Toad Suck Daze is not to be confused with the Rayne Frog Festival in Rayne, Louisiana. There is a difference. Frogs, like lawyers, usually have moist, slimy skin. Toads are more like preachers with dry, bumpy, irritating skin. Toad suck is one of those phrases that makes your grandmother want to cringe. It also gives you a wonderful opportunity to go into any local restaurant during the festival and ask the waitress if she has frog legs; whereupon the answer is usually “No, I’ve always walked like this.”
Another fun party is the Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival. One of the most fun competitions and another phrase that messes with your grandmother’s mind is the Cheese Curd Eating contest. Curd originated in India, which is also the country that gave us people who play the flute for venomous and obviously musically-inclined cobra snakes. Curd comes from sour milk (cow, buffalo, or goat) and gives us such wonderful cheeses as Limburger (named after a really smelly 1920’s pilot) and Gorgonzola (named after the 1950’s monster who ate Tokyo.
But Wisconsin has nothing on a town in Gloucester, England. Cooper’s Hill hosts the annual Cheese Rolling Festival. It involves chasing a 7-lb. block of Double Cloucester cheese down a 300-yard hill. The winner of course gets to cut the cheese. Innocent bystanders can get wounded by errant cheese. Nobody gets hurt by the inerrant cheese. One person was hit in the head by a cheese clump and had to be taken to the doctor. It knocked him silly for a while. He thought he had seen the Loch Ness Muenster.
These are great celebrations but there is more than one way to spell celebrate. Not everyone parties but every Christian should. Some people “cell-ebrate” life because they live their lives imprisoned by something – drugs, alcohol, work, self-doubt, etc. Others “sell-ebrate” life because they are motivated by money, power, success, and staying ahead of the other guy.
Do you cringe when you see the way some people live? Does it seem like they are spending their lives chasing a cheese log down a hill? Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly” (NKJV).
Do you know someone who is “cell-ebrating” life because they are imprisoned by something? You need to introduce them to the one who can pardon them. Do you know someone who “sell-ebrates” life by stepping on others while climbing the ladder of success? You need to introduce them to the One who gave his life and climbed a hill called Mt. Calvary. Tell them about the abundant life. Invite them to the party. Accepting the invitation is the only way to truly live in celebration because you know the One who threw the party.