“To Celibacy!”: Tim Otto

raises a toast to the sorrows:

I made a vow, six years ago, to be celibate. The night before the vow I went with friends to a trendy Tapas bar in San Francisco. Next to us a group of frat guys were making loud, boisterous toasts. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and soon we were lifting our glasses with them. At one point my friend, the mischievous Michael, hoisted his glass and bellowed, “To Celibacy!”

Everyone lifted their glasses and yelled, “Hear, hear!” and then those at the next table began muttering about what they had heard. “What?” “What did he say?” they asked each other.

Now, six years later I find myself asking, “What?” “What have I done?” It is not that I want to renounce the vow. I made the vow thoughtfully; I took the vow knowing it was the next faithful step for me in following Jesus. But as some of my married friends testify, the cost of a promise only becomes evident in the keeping of it.

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and an imo even more striking toast to the joys:

…I lived waiting for that future magical moment what would determine my life. But, by living in that imaginary moment, I was missing the now. I was missing my life. I decided to choose the life God was actually giving me, without grasping at a future fantasy. I adopted Jayber Crow’s resolution “I try not to let good things go by unnoticed.” I determined to excavate and explore the life I have for all its wonder and worth.

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