It's Not Your Party by Paul Tripp

Excerpt from "Survival Skill 1" by Paul Tripp http://www.paultrippministries.org/survivalskill1

I was, for four years, a Kindergarten teacher. They were the four longest years of my life! Actually, they were very enjoyable. Anyway, during that period of time, one of the moms of one of the children in the class wanted to have a birthday party for her daughter. She asked if she could use the school classroom and I said, “Sure, as long as you invite everyone, that’s fine.”
     Well after school, the day of the birthday party, she turned that classroom into Birthday Kingdom. There was one long table going down the middle of the classroom and at the end of the table was a chair for the birthday girl. And in front of her, on the table, were a bunch of presents. An amazing pile of presents! Sitting around the rest of the table were the children who were attending the party; and what they had was a sandwich bag of party favors. Now the purpose of a party favor is to remind you that it’s not your party!
     Little Johnny, sitting at the very end, directly across from Suzie the birthday girl, was looking at his bag of party favors, and looking at her pile of gifts he was getting very angry. He was her-umphing. Fffff. Ffffff. He couldn’t believe it! He was looking at his bag of two Tootsie Rolls, a lollypop, and a plastic whistle, and he was getting angrier and angrier as he looked at the pile of gifts that Suzie had.
     Finally, one of the parents who was helping at the party, had had enough, and she came down to Johnny’s end of the table, turned Johnny’s chair towards her, knelt down, and she said these deeply theological words to Johnny. She looked him in the eye and said, “Johnny, it’s not your party.”
     You see, that’s what origins tell you. When you go back to the beginning, that’s what you’re confronted with: life is not your party. Life is bigger than your marriage, bigger than your job, bigger than your garden, your car, your vacations, or that great steak. Life is bigger than you. You see, Jesus came, not to make your little kingdom work, but Jesus came to invite you to a bigger Kingdom. God created you. God owns you. God has a design for your life. Life is about his plan, his purpose, his will and his wisdom. You’ll never understand life until you understand that it’s not your party!