Volume 31: Rest in Easter

So often, in youth ministry (well, just as applicable to any adult), we use the analogy of your personal relationship with Jesus to be pursued as you would your personal relationship with a friend/spouse. If you didn't talk to your friend everyday, would that friendship have as much depth? If you didn't have quality, undistracted time together, would it be a relationship in which you truly felt known? 

Well, just as we prioritize our relationships with others, it's even more important to carve out time to spend time with our Heavenly Father and talk to Him and listen to Him and learn about His life, etc. 

Since January 1st, that's exactly what we have been able to do through our Gospel Study - spend every morning simply meditating on Jesus's life and the words He spoke and the people He encountered. 

And as a result of pursuing Him as a friend every morning, this Easter season felt a lot more personal. I found it harder to reflect on His death because I have come to really love my friend and all of the characteristics that He embodied. 

As you may know, Emily and I are big fans of the Chosen and we have discussed (more than once) how sad we will be in the last season when Jesus dies... we have come to love His character and the relationships He has built with His disciples and the His kindness and compassion. It is going to be SAD!!! 

Well, that's how I felt this Easter season - more than any year before. 

The season began with an Ash Wednesday service, remembering that we are fragile and moral BUT death is not the end. Well, in that service, we focused more on the first part... our fragility and morality. It's a heavy service, yet powerful when you lament in a community of believers. (Especially when you are all cheaters and know how it will end...)

Our Confession of Sin from that service:

Father, we confess that we have broken relationships with you and ourselves. 

We confess that we don't believe you have what is best for us. We believe we know what is best, and we reach for it constantly, ignoring the goodness you set before us. Although you provide exactly what we need, we demand to have what we want in our own time and in our own way. 

Father, we hide from you, doubting your deep and abiding love for us. 

We also hide from ourselves, fearing that our shame is what defines us. We struggle to believe you love us as we are, and we doubt your ability to restore us, making us more whole.

We confess that we are motivated more out of fear and pain-avoidance than out of love. We live in denial of both our great dignity as your image-bearers, and our great depravity that isolates and disintegrates us. 

We desperately need you to help us to believe that our worth is found in being your beloved children, and not in what we make of ourselves.

Have mercy, we pray, O Lord. 

OOF good stuff right there and was a very humbling way to enter into the lenten season. 

This lent, I read through Justin Whitmel Earley's Lenten devotional and it was a great way to stay focused on the season of lent and also challenged me in many ways. Each week had a different practice, all related to the overarching theme "THE WAY DOWN IS THE WAY UP." 

Through the six different practices: Fasting, Silence, Vulnerability, Repenting, Humility and Rising, I was stretched in many ways. For example, in the week of focusing on Silence, we were challenged, "outside of your obligations to work or parent, speak only when you absolutely must. Spend all other time listening." And then later, for the Humility week, "practice humility by trying to not talk about yourself this week."

These practices helped me to remember that I am small and that the cross is BIG! Much bigger than any of my pride or possessions or worries or fears. 

Then, as if reading a whole lenten devotional about "the way down is the way up," Corby continued this theme of lent on Palm Sunday. He brought up the point that the same people that were shouting "Hosanna" as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey were the same people that were later shouting "Crucify Him."

The people weren't ready to go down with Him... they were expecting a mighty King who would use power to get to the top. Instead, the way with Jesus is that you always go down before you go up. 

May we be quick to stand by Jesus, even when He is bringing us down low. That we would fully trust that He will eventually lead us back up. And it will be better than we could have ever imagined. 

Not only is Jesus willing to go low himself, He is willing to still love us at our lowest. He still washed Judas's feet, even knowing that He would soon betray Him. He still spoke to Peter with compassion, even knowing that He would soon betray Him. 

Speaking of betrayal, I went to my first ever Maundy Thursday service and it was profound. 

We began the service with Communion, all joining together to remember the Last Supper. But as soon as we were done, they took the time to pack up all of the parts of communion. They took their time doing this, as the congregation sat, silently watching, reflecting on how Jesus must have felt as this night continued to get darker and darker. 

The contrast of the night - going from the Last Supper to the Garden of Gethsemane is hard to truly understand. How quickly things can change!

But that one night doesn't compare to the contrast of Good Friday to Easter Sunday... From death to life. From darkness to light. From sin to forgiveness. 

On Friday at church, we nailed nails into a wooden cross. 

On Sunday at church, we covered that same cross with beautiful flowers. 

On Friday at church, we sang songs about death and the grave. 

On Sunday at church, we finished those songs, ending with resurrection and hope. 

On Friday at church, we were asked to leave quietly. 

On Sunday at church, we lingered and mingled and families were reunited together. 

On Friday at church, we asked the question "Is Christianity worth it?"
On Sunday at church, we focused on the resurrection of our living King, showing yes, it is worth it.

On Friday, we looked down, with solemn and saddened hearts. 

On Sunday, we look up, with grateful and rejoicing hearts!

In this year, of feeling the loss of Jesus more deeply, it has also led me to understand His love for me even more. And for that, I cannot help but just be filled with gratitude. My friend, whom I love, was willing to die for me on that cross. "Submitting to a lie on the cross so that we could submit to truth."

May the truth of Easter never fall on a hardened heart in me. May I be quick to live a life that does not contain the message of Easter to just one day of the year. 

And as we are not even half way done with the Gospel study, may my personal relationship with Jesus continue to grow and grow as I attempt to become more like Him and know him better. 

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Song of the week: Phil Wickham may not be for everyone, but I have listened to this song many times this past week and appreciate its ability to put the story of Easter into a song. 

Sunday is Coming

"Then He breathed His last and bowed His head

The Son of God and Man was dead

With bloody hands, tears on their face

They laid Him down inside that grave

But that wasn't the end

That wasn't the end

That wasn't the end

Let me tell you what happened next

The women came before the dawn
To find that stone already gone
When they looked inside, the angel said
"Why you lookin' for the livin' among the dead?"

He's alive, He's alive

Hallelujah, He's alive"

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Goodbye, family! See ya in August!