Spring...
I keep wondering if spring is actually going to show up this year. We keep going from nice to nasty, nice to nasty, rinse, repeat, annoy the crud out of me! Talk about fun, we were even supposed to get snow last night after being in the 70's Saturday and a warm morning into early afternoon Sunday. My knees are not happy.
Every winter I reach this point where I just cannot stand the cold, bleak, dark days any more. I reach the end of my rope and need something different. Not only that, but I need the new to arrive. I cannot sit around and see the death that strikes nature every year without the glimmer of hope, otherwise life degenerates into meaninglessness. But, the joy, the hope that I see is new life. It isn't just a guess, it's a promise. We know that the flowers will bloom, the trees will bud, things will become green and life will continue. We know this to be true, yet while we're here in the bleak, winter landscape it's hard to see beyond that to the hope.
That's the message of Easter. It's crucifixion Friday and everything looks bleak, dim and hopeless, but Sunday is coming. It's the idea that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Jesus may have been dead, but He's not done. That idea is inspiring. It is something that turns scared, uneducated fishermen into phenomenal preachers who stood unafraid before those who had Jesus killed! In fact, the test in Acts goes so far as to say, "The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus." I look at this as the ultimate compliment: I may be a nobody, but I had been with Jesus and was someone different because of that. Wow. That is the message of Easter: I may be a nobody, but I have been with one who could not be held by the grave and I live, move and exude His power!
That promise is as encouraging today as it was 2000 some odd years ago. I may not be anything, but I know someone who is everything. I am not, but I know I Am (to quote Louie Giglio). If nothing else this spring, take some time to reflect on the fact that as new life springs up around us we have the same chance to spring to new life and be seen as people who "had been with Jesus."
Every winter I reach this point where I just cannot stand the cold, bleak, dark days any more. I reach the end of my rope and need something different. Not only that, but I need the new to arrive. I cannot sit around and see the death that strikes nature every year without the glimmer of hope, otherwise life degenerates into meaninglessness. But, the joy, the hope that I see is new life. It isn't just a guess, it's a promise. We know that the flowers will bloom, the trees will bud, things will become green and life will continue. We know this to be true, yet while we're here in the bleak, winter landscape it's hard to see beyond that to the hope.
That's the message of Easter. It's crucifixion Friday and everything looks bleak, dim and hopeless, but Sunday is coming. It's the idea that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Jesus may have been dead, but He's not done. That idea is inspiring. It is something that turns scared, uneducated fishermen into phenomenal preachers who stood unafraid before those who had Jesus killed! In fact, the test in Acts goes so far as to say, "The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men who had had no special training. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus." I look at this as the ultimate compliment: I may be a nobody, but I had been with Jesus and was someone different because of that. Wow. That is the message of Easter: I may be a nobody, but I have been with one who could not be held by the grave and I live, move and exude His power!
That promise is as encouraging today as it was 2000 some odd years ago. I may not be anything, but I know someone who is everything. I am not, but I know I Am (to quote Louie Giglio). If nothing else this spring, take some time to reflect on the fact that as new life springs up around us we have the same chance to spring to new life and be seen as people who "had been with Jesus."
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