I am Private Ryan--The Life of Being Sacrificed For

This morning I was up early and watched the sunrise, hoping for some life-altering epiphany to explode into me as the sun exploded onto the landscape. But the sun didn’t explode onto the scene, and an epiphany didn’t explode in me. Instead, the sun slipped in quietly, like always, and I sat quietly and watched it, like always, and virtually every other day of the year that would have been fine, but not today.

Today is Good Friday. It is the beginning of Passover. It is the day when the Lamb of God was sacrificed to cover the sin debt by every person in all history of time. This is a big day! There should be some kind of resounding…something.

 I know several churches that are having “Reflection Services” today, services to be still, ponder our guilt, ponder our inability to be good enough, ponder how woefully unworthy we are so we can be crazy stunned by how wondrously loving God is and how unfathomable the gift of His Son is. And despite my best efforts, I can’t go there.

 It isn’t that I don’t understand my inability to save myself. I live that reality every single day. It isn’t that I don’t believe in the cross or the empty tomb. I also live that reality every single day. It is the only thing that helps me overcome the reality of myself.

 This morning I sat and watched the sun and prayed for a moment of… I wanted an emotional moment of connecting with God, of having my life-altered, of being shattered maybe, of…

 I wrote the following in my journal:

 I am trying to have an experience. Isn’t it supposed to be some kind of life-altering day? That is what I am trying to have. A life-altering encounter. I am trying to have an emotional moment with God.

 I mean, isn’t that the point of reflection on Good Friday? To have this heartbreaking, reality moment with God where I realize how small I am and how big He is and how desperate I am and how benevolent He is?

 But that isn’t what I feel. At all.

 I don’t feel desperate or crushed or crappy.

I feel so wildly loved.
So insanely important.
So…Private Ryan.

In the movie Saving Private Ryan, a clerk writing letters to the family of deceased soldiers realizes that three brothers have died and a fourth is also in the war. A decision is made to save Private Ryan and make sure he is returned home safely. Captain Miller and seven men are sent to find Ryan. Lives are sacrificed in the process, and when Ryan is saved from the battle taking place where he is, Captain Miller says simply, “Earn this.”

How in the world could a man earn lives lost to save him?

How in the world could I ever earn a Life sacrificed for me?

Simple answer: It isn’t possible…and yet, it is.

But I don’t “earn” it by living in the past, by beating myself up over what I used to be, or even what I still struggle with now.

From my journal:

I really want to honor God for His acts, for His sacrifice I cannot even begin to fathom, and I want to honor Jesus for His sacrifice, but I do not see how grieving and returning to a pit of self-hatred and wallowing in misery honors Him at all. Isn’t that what He died to deliver me from?

I keep thinking of Saving Private Ryan when Captain Miller says, “Earn this.” Private Ryan kneels before that cross in that cemetery and asks if he has been enough. He has lived a life meant to honor the sacrifices made for him.

Isn’t that how I need to live?

Isn’t that how I should think?

Shouldn’t my life be lived to honor the One who sacrificed Himself for me?

Shouldn’t it be about living bigger,

living more intentionally,

living more authentically,

living more loved,

living more aware of my value?

 Isn’t the point of Christ’s death and resurrection to deliver me from the hell I find myself in so I can live a life that honors the God who gave the gift?

 Isn’t the point of Christ on the cross summed up in John 3:16: For GOD so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not die but have everlasting life?

 Is it possible to focus on the crucifixion of Christ without looking at how I should then live?

 Can I earn what was given for me?

No. Never.

But I can live the love back to Him that He poured out for me. I honor Him by loving Him and living in such a way as to make His sacrifice worth it.

That is the life of being sacrificed for.

That is the life He bought by sacrificing Himself to save me.
That is the life of a Private Ryan.

What Do Yoga, Mother Earth, and the Easter Bunny Have in Common?

This morning on Facebook I shared an article about yoga and how there is no "Christian yoga." Yoga is, in fact, a form of Hindu worship. In Hindu there are five paths to the universal deity. One of those is physical discipline, yoga. Each position in yoga represents a characteristic of a god or goddess. By disciplining the physical into these positions, it is believed the spirit is also aligned with that particular characteristic or trait of the god or goddess. The more yoga, the more one is fashioned into these characteristics, and the faster one becomes one with the universal deity.

You can't redeem that. That is like saying a black mass can be redeemed. The purpose is the worship of Satan. That can't be redeemed.

Several folks told me they had no idea, which is concerning. The Bible tells us to resist the devil, and he will flee from us, but people are not be educated and equipped concerning practical things that have infiltrated our culture and the culture of the church that we need to flee.

In response to the, "I had no idea," I wrote the following. I pray it is for the deliverance of captives from darkness and the equipping of the saints for holiness.

Blessings,
Jerri

A few people have contacted me concerning the yoga post saying they had no idea. Here are some other things you may not know about:
astrology
horoscopes
crystals
mother earth
the universal mind
All of the above are based on the idea that there is some cosmic energy that has control of the universe and thus has control over lives. All of this is blatantly against the teachings of God and in fact, is godless and anti-God.

Fortune telling such as
palm reading
tea leaf reading
tarot cards
All demonic. How can you tell? None of them have anything to do with God. In contrast, go to the Bible and see the real prophets and how they gave all glory to God.

I know we don't like to stomp on tradition, but Easter is a festival for the goddess Eastre, which some believe is the actual origin for the idea of mother earth. You can read more here. http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html

By the way, this whole aura crap and namaste is about the god that lives in you. It is not about God the Father. It is referring to the goodness of the person.

According to John 10:10, we have two forces at work in the world: Satan and Jesus. If you are involved in the godless practices above, you're worshiping Satan. There is no other way to see it. The right answer is to repent, turn from your wicked ways, and serve God, but if you choose not to do that, then whatever happens, you can't blame God because you know the Truth, and you chose the lie.

The Hope of Monday

It's the day after "Easter", and you know what you've got besides a bunch of empty plastic eggs and candy? Nothing really.

BUT, if it is the day after the resurrection, do you know what you have? Hope. Because the resurrection wasn't a day. It's a life. It's a promise. Not just an eternal one, but a right now, today, where you are, in the place where you either give up and walk away from that dream, relationship, life plan, destiny...or you hold on and trust the God who can breathe life back into a dead, decaying body can breathe life back into the desire He put in your heart. It doesn't matter how dead it looks.

It doesn't matter how far away from home your prodigal is. It doesn't matter how big that mass is on that MRI. It doesn't matter if you've been pleading and asking for years with no seeming answer. Because here is the truth of the resurrection.

The God who raised Christ from the dead knows exactly where your prodigal is and is ready to lead him/her home. The God who breathed a decaying body back to life can still eradicate cancer from yours. The God who waited three days to raise Jesus because He wanted people to get the impossibility of it all still rocks the house with doing the impossible at the perfect time to show YOU Himself.

So often, we talk about Black Friday, but Black Monday is when we left Easter come and go and forget the reality of the resurrection. What could be blacker than forgetting the hope of a risen Savior and the powerful God who still raises dead things from the grave. When Christ died, hope lay in the darkness. Once He rose, hope was released to the believing.

Father God, hear my prayer for each person who reads this, whether they read it once or over and over because they really want to believe in the resurrection of their dead.

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. -- Ephesians 3

Blessed, Choose to Still Believe in the Resurrection Monday to you all!
Jerri

The Original Black Friday

I've heard it said the pertinence of Jesus being in the grave for three days is that some believed a soul could return to the body the first day or two, but three days meant the soul wasn't just hanging around taking a break only to decide it wasn't ready to truly depart, that maybe it wanted or needed more time.

You know the pertinence of Jesus being the grave for three days to me? He was dead.

Really. That is the pertinent issue to me.

Jesus was dead, and there was no miracle worker to call His name and bring Him back. There was no one with the power to lie on Him and breathe Him back to life. There was no one to speak to the dry bones. There was no one to do anything really cool or just weird to make life return. He was dead, and there was no hope He was coming back.

This morning I woke up around 0300, and I lay in my bed staring into the dark, and I tried to get into the profundity of this weekend. I want it to be more than just a fun day with good food and candy. I lay there in the dark and asked the Lord, "Talk to me about this. What do you want me to get out of this?"

Very clearly, I heard one word:

"HOPE."

When you are sitting in the dark, staring at the dead, it's easy to lose hope. It's easy to chastise yourself for being stupid enough to believe something way too good to be true. It's easy to be crushed mentally and emotionally because you trusted. It's easy to feel disillusioned because you had grandiose ideas...that someone else had the power to kill.

It's easy to stare in shock as what you just knew was our life's destiny is stolen by someone else, battered beyond recognition, and killed before your very eyes. It's easy to look at what is dead and give up hope of the life you thought you were going to have.

I'm quite sure the disciples felt that way.

And they were right.

The easy lives they thought they would have as nobility under the reign of a King who was going to restore Israel and overthrow her oppressors died with the humiliation of a criminal, not the honor of a king. All they had hoped for was put in a tomb and sealed in darkness.

Think about that for a moment.

The hope lay in the darkness.

What they thought God was going to do was dead.

What God had always planned to do was safe and sound...

in the darkness.

Darkness isn't hopelessness. Darkness is the place hope resides because it is the place God speaks into to create life no one ever dreamed of before.

In Genesis 1, He spoke into the darkness and created an entire physical world that the hosts of heaven had never known. In the Gospels, He spoke into the darkness of the tomb to create an undefeatable King who reigns over sin and death. The hope of salvation didn't live in the human body of Christ. It was born in the resurrected body of Christ. The hope wasn't in His never dying.

The hope was in the darkness where everything was dead...except for the plan of God. 

Hope isn't knowing what God is doing.

Hope is trusting God is doing something.

 

I know a lot of people who are looking into darkness in a lot of places in their lives right now. I figure a lot of you are, too.

 

I pray this is a weekend that reminds you of what Jesus did for you

...and what God is still doing for you.

 

I pray that it is a time of hope...not in what you see...

but in the heart and faithfulness of the God who is doing things you can't see.

 

Blessed resurrection celebration to you all!

Jerri

A Right Now Resurrection

Daddy,

I LOVE YOU!!!

Thank you for a chance to celebrate your power to resurrect dead lives, dead hopes, dead dreams, dead hearts, and dead souls.

 Thank you for a day given to celebrate your love that would rathe die for us than see us die.

 Thank you for the limitless power Jesus released when He hung on that cross and took our sins upon Himself so we could stand before you in His righteousness.

 Thank you for....oh, my heart...I lose words....

 Daddy, today there are people who need to hear your power, near to hear your hope, near to hear your love. There are people thinking their hopes, their dreams, their marriages, their kids, their careers, their callings, THEY THEMSELVES are dead or are too dead. There are people today GASPING FOR AIR thinking any moment it will be the last breath. Daddy, DADDY! Hear them. Respond to them. Pour yourself out on them. I pray the power that defeated eternal death on that cross would pour into these lives right now. RIGHT NOW! I bind these hopes and dreams to you. I bind these lives, relationships, purposes to you. Daddy, breathe life where it is needed. Make your presence known. Make it obvoius to these precious people that Resurrection wasn't something that just happened 2,000 years ago. It is something that happens EVERY SINGLE DAY IN YOU. Jesus is the resurrection every single day, and in Him there is resurrection for whatever seems dead. In Him there is life right now for THEIR LIVES.

 Daddy, this day is not about Easter eggs or even awesome family dinners—although you are ALL about family. Today is a day of resurrection, and there is so much you want to resurrect. I pray you would give the hope, faith, and courage to each person waiting for the resurrection that they might believe in what you want to resurrect in their lives.

 Thank you, Daddy. I love you.

 I see a husband who has made mistakes, not understood true manhood, not understood what a strong husband truly is, and he is wondering if he has blown it without possibility of redemption. The Lord says, “A broken spirit and contrite heart I will not refuse. Humble yourself before me. I will teach you to love her.”

 I see a woman crying over her family. I think it is her kids. She is sitting at a dining table, crying out. Oh, Lord, she is crying out. I hear Him saying, “Trust in me. Simply trust in me.” I believe He wants to teach you how to stop parenting in fear and start parenting in faith. You’ve created a chasm because you’ve been trying to control because you are scared for your kids. Your afraid of their going down the road you did or worse. He doesn’t want you to live in fear. Fear only kills. Faith heals and gives life. Pour yourself into Him and let Him pour into you. Let your prayer be for your trust in him to be increased, and as you give them to Him, you will see their hearts turn back to you and to home. More than that, you will see their hearts turn to Him, and He says not to panic over missteps or sidesteps. He has not abandoned them. Fathers don’t abandon their kids.

 I also see someone sitting by either a large lake or an ocean. Young woman. You’re heart is broken. I feel like you keep muttering to yourself that you’ve made such a mess of things and you are specifically referring to things you’ve done, the life you are now living, and you feel bound to this life, like you don’t know how to get out, like you’ve created this prison with friendships and choices. The Lord wants you to know there is no prison He can’t get you out of, and yes, the exodus can be challenging, but He can get you out and wants to get you out. He adores you. Did you hear that? He adores you, and if you put your hand out, He is all in. He’s ready to save you. Just set your face like flint and be prepared for a lot of changes. He’s going to get you out of that environment, away from those people, and He is going to give you a new place with new relationships. I also feel like He is saying, “Don’t believe the lie you are unworthy. Only I get to determine your worth, and you are worth this to Me.”

 I also feel like there is a drug addict and also someone who has had an abortion, and you cannot believe you’ve gotten where you are. You disgust yourself. The Lord says He knows the road that got you here. He knows the pain that led to your decisions, and not only does He want to heal you of the pain of those decisions, He wants to heal you of the pain that led you here in the first place.

 I see a sexual abuse victim. Young person, and He wants you to know your cries have not gone unheard. He has heard you. Daddy, this is hard for me because you know my heart about this. I am asking you to do what has to be done to reveal this abomination. I pray for you to remove this abuser from this person’s life. I pray for safe refuge. I pray for a safe place to heal. I pray the lies that this person is the cause of the abuse would be silenced. I ask you to slap down the person inflicting this pain. I ask you to heal everything that has been harmed in this victim’s mind, heart, and spirit. I pray for physical healing. I pray for complete restoration of identity and joy in who you made this person to me. I pray for the young man that you would restore his manhood, that he would not fear being a man, that he would not loathe being a man, that he would not see his manhood as dirty or evil but that he would rejoice in the gift of being a godly man with integrity and honor. I break the ties Satan has placed on him in Jesus’ name, and I ask you to restore him to the fullness of who you made him to be.

And for this young woman who wants to mutilate her body or hide her womanness either in manliness or with obesity so no man will ever find her attractive and hurt her again, I ask you to heal her I ask you to restore to her the beauty of her womanhood. I ask you to heal her from fear, heal her from shame. I pray that you would free her from the nightmares. Restore her to the woman you created her to be. There is gentleness and softness in her that is so needed, and I pray you would give this back to her.

Daddy, I bring before you this person who is being bullied. I ask for a steel canister to be placed around this person so that the verbal assault will fall on deaf ears and there would be no heart or mind damage. I know evil exists, and there is no perfect world, so I am asking for physical protection, that no contact would be made, and I ask that you would put a silencer in the ears of this victim so that the voices would not penetrate. I pray that the only voices this person hears would be voices speaking life and identifying this person as the gift YOU declare him/her to be, and I pray those voices would saturate the mind, heart, and spirit of this person.

I feel like there are so many who need a word from God, who need hope, who need to know God sees you and hears you. I’ve posted what I’ve heard specifically, but I feel like the Lord wants me to offer specific prayer to anyone who would like it. If you would like specific prayer, you can comment here or message me through my profile. I will pray and share with you what I feel the Lord says. If you would like the exchange to remain private, I will need an email where I can send my reply. I give you my word, I will share nothing with anyone else, not your name, not your need, not your email.

I pray today is a resurrection day for you. I pray you know more than ever that this day is about Jesus’ death for you because of His love for you.

Blessings,

Jerri

 

Resurrection--What It Means Everyday

Spent time this morning studying the word "resurrect".

Re--again
surr--to move from a low place to a high place

We all started in a high place and fell to a low place. Through the sacrific of Christ, we are giving the option to choose the high place again.

Annoyingly, we can still fall...
...into old patterns
...old mindset
...old identity

When Jesus offered the wine and bread of the Last Supper, He said, "Do this to remember Me."
Remember in Me, you always have the option.

Wherever you are, however far you've fallen...He remains...and so does the option to choose Him...and be restored to the high place with Him.

Resurrection, part 2

(Resurrection, part 1)

For years my goal had been to see my marriage healed and made whole. Now, I seemed to be adrift with no clear direction. I had no idea what I was supposed to do or what I was working toward.

I do.

“Lord, what is the desire of my heart?”

That is when I saw it.

Hanging down, snagged in the fork of a limb, a result of last night’s storms. The broken end close to the children’s swing set. A rather long limb big enough to do a lot of harm to any body, most certainly a child’s body.

Broken limbs. I sighed deep. A common occurrence in Texas in the spring. Not one I enjoyed, especially not now when I had to figure out how to get them to the ground.

Were there more?

I stood and turned to see the top of the house. Sure enough. Lying on the garage roof just hanging onto the electric wire a nice size one, too large to push off with the rake like I had last week’s sacrifice.

God, I don’t want to have to call anyone for help. Really? Was this necessary?

I studied the limb and remembered one of my favorite things: PVC pipe. I went to my extensive collection of pipe, found a long piece, attached a T-joint to the end, and put two short pieces on either side. I put the “T” end of the pipe against the limb and pushed.

The limb leaned, resisted, and suddenly flopped backward off the line. At least I wasn’t going to be a crispy critter today. How to get it down though?

Again, I studied the limb. What if I could…?

I shimmied the T into a fork of the limb, twisted it slightly, pulled gently…

Snagged.

Excellent. Just what I wanted.

Then I walked far from the wire, pulled the limb toward me, and ran when it fell off the house. One limb down. One to go.

Feeling proud of myself, I took my ingenious T pipe, put it against the bottom of the hanging limb, and pushed. The limb obviously had not been well advised because instead of popping up and falling out of the fork, it sort of grunted at me and didn’t budge.

Maybe I hadn’t pushed it far enough. I added to my length of pipe and pushed again. The limb still did not budge.

I stepped back and studied. I saw where a broken limb created a fork. Aha! I’ll snag that just like I did the other one, give a pull, and run when the limb tumbles down.

The snag was easy. The tug was easy. The top section of the pipe left hanging attached to the limb was unexpected.

I tried different angles, different pipe sizes, different everything I could think of. The limb did not budge.

Finally, I sat down.

I had spent who knows how long working on those limbs, and I hadn’t even had a chance to hear God, which is why I was out there anyway. And now, I had to cut up the limb from the house and still had to figure out how to get the limb out of the tree, and I didn’t want to call anyone because although I know God says He blesses people who take care of widows and orphans, I don’t want people getting blessed on my account.

Actually, that isn’t true. I don’t want to bother people or be a burden, and it’s only a limb for crying out loud.

A limb I couldn’t get down.

The rocker creak. I stared at the limb.

“God, really? Was this necessary today? What are You doing anyway?”

“Giving you the desires of your heart.”

I looked at the limb on the ground, and in an instant, I was over three decades away in a wooded area, my hands on the handle of a crosscut saw, my dad’s on the other handle. We were sawing up a tree for winter firewood. I wasn’t even in school yet, but Dad patiently taught me how to pull the saw, not push it, and when he carried big pieces of wood, I carried small ones. We spent many Saturday afternoons in the early fall felling trees, cutting them into woodstove size chunks, and splitting those with an axe.

It was one of my favorite things as a child. Dad and I spent time together, talked…as much as a preschooler and adult can, and were just there…together. I learned about teamwork and found out I could move big trees if they were cut into small enough pieces, and sometimes pieces were just too big for me, and Dad took care of those.

In another instant, I was back at the limb on the ground, the smell of cut wood floated around me, and the shwhoosh of a bow saw grinding its way through the flesh of the limb followed by the thwip of the back-pull kept my attention. Only this time, I wasn’t looking at my dad. I was looking at my daughter. A young lady in the becoming whose hands have never known a blister, much less a callous, with gloves on her hands and her hair pulled back into a ponytail, pushed and pulled  the saw in her grip, buckled the blade, and tried again. This time the coaching voice was mine.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw my son, tying another bundle tight, spool of twine and scissors at his feet.

I smile with pride.

They are learning…

…That hard work won’t kill, how to work as a team, that big things cut into small parts are manageable.

And we talk. We blurt out our frustrations. Buckled saw blades really can jerk the body hard. Limbs are not the most cooperative things ever. It’s not as hard as we thought it might be. By the way, did you know…? And, I was thinking…

In that instant I saw them.

The desires of my heart.

A family that understands the value of a team, embraces doing what needs to be done…even when it is hard or new, is prepared to face life whatever comes, and is sure they can move any obstacle as long as they get it into the right size pieces. My preparing them for when I’m no longer here and it is their turn to be the coaches. Life skills not discussed on a comfy couch but learned in life ways so they really mean something.

What was I to trust God to resurrect?

Our family.

Our sense of wholeness.

Our knowing we are a team.

Our ability to see obstacles and know there is a solution.

Our joy in being there…together.

My vision for how to get us where I want us to be and the wisdom to see prayers answered…even in the form of broken limbs.

Speaking of broken limbs, what about the one still hanging there?

I looked up, and I saw the answer: A rope with a loop on the end threaded through a long pipe. Use the pipe to place the loop around the broken part of the fork, give a hard tug, and run.

Yep, that should be fairly easy to do. In fact, we’d get it done later that afternoon…as a family…living the life I really wanted.

Resurrection, part 1

I looked out the window. There was no sunrise. The clouds looked like they could dump rain any time . I flopped back on my bed and pulled the covers to my chin.

“God, it’s Easter. It is a special day, and I still don’t know how to celebrate it.”

“Come out to the deck with Me.”

I pushed back my covers, rolled out of bed, pulled on sweat bottoms and a hoody jacket, and headed toward the deck. I didn’t really feel like going, but after the last ten months, I knew I would be glad I did.

The rocker creaked, and I tried to listen for His voice, but my mind kept finding places to wander.

Wonder if the purple rose bush is going to come out or if it really died. Still need to work the front beds. I don’t know if the zinnia seeds made it through leaf cover or not. Maybe I should just mulch everything, but when it rains hard it’ll wash the mulch under the eaves. Maybe I should put down gravel there and mulch everything else. There is grass coming up in the gravel walk by the house. I need to weed the gravel.

Sorry, God.

I tried to pull my mind back to focus on Him.

After a few more mind adventures, I prayed in disgust, “Dear God, help me concentrate. I really want to hear what You want to say about Easter.”

“Don’t call it Easter. It’s Resurrection.”

My mind floated back over the last year: marital separation, Mom’s cancer and death, my husband wanting a divorce, his sudden death due to a heart attack, friendships spanning decades coming to abrupt ends, circumstances leading to family split, and…

“Lord, what should I be believing You’ll resurrect?”

My mind was filled with thoughts of the many times the Lord had spoken to me in the last week and repeatedly promised, “I’ll give you the desires of your heart.”

“Lord, I still don’t really know the desires of my heart. You keep asking, but I don’t know.”

“I do.” The words were filled with kind assurance and a gentle smile.

I leaned my head back in the chair and stared ahead.

I used to think I knew the desires of my heart, but in the disintegration of what I used to call my life, they seemed to have disappeared with everything else. My compass for what I was moving toward had disappeared with them. It seemed that life had simply become a to-do list of getting Rob’s estate settled and finding the horizontal surfaces in my house, which had been mostly missing since he died. What happened when the to do list was finished? What happened when the piles of “deal with later” had been dealt with and conquered? People kept talking about forward motion, but I wasn’t sure what I was moving toward anymore.

For years my goal had been to see my marriage healed and made whole. Now, I seemed to be adrift with no clear direction. I had no idea what I was supposed to do or what I was working toward.

I do.

“Lord, what is the desire of my heart?”

That is when I saw it.

(Please join me tomorrow for "Resurrection, part 2)

Fantastical

Tomorrow is Easter, and I am trying to figure out how to celebrate it.

Honestly, I thought I could let is slip by mostly ignored, but I can't.

It's not the children or the need to do the traditional Easter basket. It's...trying to grasp it...Easter that is.

Oh, I know. Easter is the celebration of Christ rising from the dead after being crucified and lying in a tomb three days. Pretty crazy and far fetched. I mean, really. A man is nailed to a cross, left there until he dies, is buried and sealed in a tomb, and just comes back to life three days later. Pretty fantastical, if you ask me.

And if you ask me, I'll tell you I believe every word of it. I believe the same God who created life from an empty void can create life in an empty body. I believe tombs are not defined by their looks but by the lack of life, and I believe God has no problem speaking into tombs...even the tomb where I feel like most of my life got buried in the last year...and creating life.

Not just any life, but life we've never seen before, could never imagine, was too amazing to hope for.

As I look to tomorrow and wait for Easter, I am standing outside a tomb, disillusioned by what is inside, but still wondering what amazing thing that seems too great to hope for is being created by a God who has power to speak life where death seems to reign.

Sound fantastical?

Yep, and fantastical is exactly what I am hoping for.