Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easter. Show all posts

29 Apr 2019

A letter from God, first week after Easter

Why my child, do you live as if I did not understand your life?


That you are scrambling, anxious, frantic, sleepless?


Did the sun not rise this morning?

And when you least expected it, a reprieve or a kindness came?

Or did you fail to notice how the birds sing on despite the heat and their infringements of their habitats?




As the world careens towards its implosion, the prime of my creation will suffer the most, while the rest of creation will do the best they can - hunting, mating with flair and flourish, resting and repeating it all over.

Men and women will do far worse. Some of the specimen will no doubt plod on, even doing their utmost to avert catastrophe and inject goodness into the decay. But most will be out for themselves, heaping hurt and scars on souls and all forms of terrain, physical, psychosocial and eternal.

My child, I am not at all blind to how the world is. My son, Jesus the Christ, came to live like one of you. He had a human body that was tired, hungry, stirred and tempted. He had the full range of emotions and he had plenty of expectations from all ranks and file. He lived a real life.

He also died a real death, and an excruciatingly painful one, the details of which I don’t want to repeat.

Why, is the real question.




He lived a real life because life is holy, special and precious. Your life is.

You can see in his life, how it was easy for him to be someone else, to submit to the powerful systems of the day, to play along or to turn into a coward. Those are actual options, for him, as for you.

Some of you feel you have no choice. No, you do. You always do.


You can see in his death - even in all the injustice – how you can die angry, reluctant, frightened, or at peace.

So my son came to show you life, and how to live it.

and he died so you can see how to die, in a world that may demand your life and cause your death.


He came to show you that Life is more than living, that even death cannot take Life away.




So I want you my child to wake up each day, and breathe large lungfuls of Life into your being.

Look at that never-ending do-list, the unresolved conflict, the eye bags and even the lightly lined purse - and say, even so, I shall LIVE.

Then you shall no longer just know that I number your hairs and supplies your needs. You shall experience it!


I have saints whose lives showcase Life -
their diets will appall many of you in the first world.
their solitary lives will shock many of you in the connected world.
their fruitfulness will overturn your ideas of productivity and fulfilment.



Yes, you are quick to protest that you are not one of these saints.

Well, I mean you to be.

Because I am Life and that’s what I want for you.

Most of you won’t need to leave where you live or stop what you do.

Some of you won’t require major changes to your lives.

But many of you must consider if you are truly, really, living - the Life - Jesus modeled, and died so you may have…. a life of freedom -

from lust and shame
from abusing others and being abused
from fear 

 In considering, you will come to see that your ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.

Parents may have to give up their careers to be home with the ripening lives entrusted to them.
Professionals may have to reconfigure their work vision to notice that in the end, their work is about life: staff meetings, colleagues, products, datelines… are about actual, real lives. You may have to change your agendas, tone your expectations, extend your timelines.
Pastors may have to learn to speak up for those whose lives and work conditions reduce their humanity.


I know the future is so uncertain and feels bleak. But I am GOD and I hold the world in my hands. I especially hold my saints.

Again, if you hang on to your life (small ‘l’), my Son told you that you would lose it.

So stop building the life (small ‘l’) you want.

Start praying for a desire for Life, and if you have asked Jesus to be your Saviour and LORD, it is there already, like a seed ripening….




Protect and nourish that seed, and see Life springing up - in spite of the second law of thermodynamics and all of everything going downhill. It’s a paradox, a surprise and a mystery. Life.

6 Apr 2014

Journey's...end..in view..

Today, someone asked if my son's Christian school does anything special for Easter. 

Anything special? My initial response was to remind her to live Easter each day. But then, it made me think.

I have certainly seen some Easter specials in my life -
as a growing child, i had collected Easter eggs home to add to the family meal...and try to tell my mom about the good news of new life...
as a rookie pastor, i had my little church put out lilies, serve out eggs and pancakes..sing and tell             stories... while i preached a fiery message of new possibilities..
as a visitor to one of America's largest churches, I have seen a pageant complete with an angel suspended by high wire, real horses and a camel...


What is the big deal about Easter? Why am I even talking about it?


Because when we began, our goal was to drink in order to get to thisResurrection ! {click for reminder}

That's right, we were not drinking to get by. We are drinking to get somewhere. We are headed towards a vision God himself has etched within our souls, and we won't turn back until we reach it. Friends, we have found in this journey how great our thirst is! Thankfully, we have also found that the Well has not run dry.

Yet as I ponder her question: 'are you doing anything special for Easter?', I must say that for most of us, Easter is a time for the church to do something for us - remind us of great glorious truths, roll out some higher-than-usual octane programs.. pretti-fy the church with larger than usual blooms... and this only goes to prove on thing: Christians are in danger of no longer knowing the big deal that is Easter.
After all -

We skim meaning while we store up material goods.
We seek relief rather than learn the rhythms of rest.
We settle for vague improvements instead of hunger for sorting-our-life-out according to God's Word.
We strain for spiritual 'highs' and remain blind to sibling, parent, neighbour needing a clear picture of God's love.

These patterns of life does not predispose us to obey this simple word:

Remember Jesus Christ, risen form the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel *
~ 2 Timothy 2v8

How much, how often, how well, do -- we -- Remember?

And what are to remember? Jesus rose from the dead. In case we forget in our busy 365 days, the church has an entire season called Lent that culminates in Easter to help us remember. 

And, all of our lives are but a living out of what we remember.

What is it you remember? 
What is it you store in your heart and mind?

The next few days, ask the God of memories to show you what you remember, and perhaps what you need to forget.


And this --- what is it that you pour into the hearts and minds of others?


Drink today dear friend, the journey continues. 

As we remember Jesus, know that his journey took him through a valley, and to a Cross; and then it was quiet in a tomb -- before --  the Resurrection. 



*my gratitude to Ps John Piper for reminding me of this verse.