To Joey, on Your Birthday

Today is your 34th birthday! Happy birthday to my friend, my heart, my home.

Tonight we’re having a very short notice birthday party for you. I sent you the Evite I sent to our friends so that you would see who was coming and all the other details of the party I’d planned for you at the last minute. To my surprise, you submitted an RSVP for your own birthday party, you said (about yourself), “I think he's kind of a tool, but I also think his wife is hot and I'll show up just so I can flirt with her all night.” I, of course, laughed at this remark and told you you make me laugh. But deep down, I actually think you're right—you are a tool. Let me explain.

Tools help us build things, they help us fix things, they help us create things. Tools are meant to be used. They are built for hard work. They provide the help that’s needed when something needs to get done. They are strong, substantial, and are not easily broken. Paradoxical as it seems, though they can be dangerous, they are actually designed to be quite safe. In a nutshell, that is you.

You're much more than that, of course, and I could go on and on about how I feel about you and how much you've changed my life and how I can’t imagine my life without you in it (all of which would be very true). But today, I can’t help but think of you as a tool. You build things, fix things, and create things, in a very literal sense. But you also do so on another level in the lives of so many people besides me. You build trust and relationships; you fix broken bones and broken spirits; you create fun, happiness and joy. Although I thought getting close to you was dangerous (at first), I have discovered that with you, I am safe.

But more than all that, I believe you are a tool that God uses over and over again. In fact, sometimes I think you might just be one of God’s favorite tools in His toolbox.

So Joey, today I honor you for the tool you are. Thank you for being willing to be used in my life, and in the lives of so many others. May God use you this year in ways you have been praying to be used. May He give you new opportunities to build, to fix, and to create.

Happy birthday, my love.