Resurrection: to make alive that which was dead

Interesting conversation with the hubby this morning. We were feeling strange - for the second year in a row - because Easter is here and we are doing...nothing special. Nothing religious. No Easter service, no eggs, no baskets, nothing. And we don't feel bad about it. Then Dan told me about a conversation he had with a coworker last night.

The coworker was angry. Really, righteously indignant-type angry. He is a Christian and had to work today. On Easter Sunday. He can't go to church. His take: "It just makes me so mad. As Christians, on Easter, we're supposed to just totally focus on Jesus. And here I have to work instead of being in church and focused on what I'm supposed to focus on."

Dan's response: "I was a minister in churches for 15 years. I worked EVERY Sunday - including EVERY Easter Sunday."

It stopped the coworker in his tracks. That had never occurred to him before. And it was a reminder again to us of how differently we view our walk with Christ now. That walk is a daily, personal relationship, not just a "special dates and occasions" acquaintanceship wrapped around certain programs and activities. We *can* focus on Him and the meaning of His resurrection - and the power of it in our lives - whether we are at work, on a playground, doing laundry, herding kids, whatever. The power of the resurrection works in our lives DAILY, in and through ALL of our activities.

Some will see what I'm about to say as heresy but I know it to be truth: the fact of the matter is that the power of the resurrection is MORE evident in our lives now that we *do not* attend religous services regularly than it was when we did. Jesus is a real person in our lives, capable and willing to love us for who and where we are, having COMPLETED His redemption in our lives. We can rest in that and just be who we are meant to be. We no longer worry about doing the things we *think* He (or others who claim to know Him) requires us to do to be good enough. None of the relationship with Him rests on what we are "supposed to do." It is totally and completely about what He has already done. The resurrection is the power to heal, to rescue, to complete, to reconcile, to love. It is the power to LIVE in the freedom of knowing that reality is finished, completely accomplished. When He hung on the cross and declared "It is finished" He meant it. For all time, for all creation. It is finished. He accomplished His purpose. There is no undoing it no matter how we fail or falter. We are free to live.