Easter

It was an Easter tradition growing up to receive one present from my parents to celebrate the holiday.  I have been thinking about one of those presents a lot this week as I think it demonstrates the point of Easter:

  I must have been around 10 or 11 years old and I remember sitting up in my sister’s room when my mother informed me that she had bought me an Easter present.  Being too young to understand a meaningful gift, my parents had decided to give me a basketball encyclopedia for the computer.  Sitting on the bed I remember asking my parents in a tone that only an 11 year old can pull off whether or not the CD even played a game.  They informed me that it was educational, which I didn’t like one bit.  In fact I think I told them that the gift was stupid.  Worse yet, I informed them that I would never use it or enjoy it.  Yes, I could be a rotten kid.  As time passed, however, I cracked open the CD and what I found absolutely astonished me.  The CD was filled with video clips of Dr. J, Bill Russell, and better yet, Michael Jordan.  I remember sitting at the computer in our finished basement and thinking how stupid I was for not being absolutely thrilled to receive this gift, even if it wasn’t a video game.  If only I had the wisdom back then to admit my mistake and tell my parents how stupid I felt.  Thankfully, I think they got the point from my changed behavior and the hours of time I spent at the computer learning about some of the NBA’s greatest basketball players. 

As I have reflected over this childhood experience, I have come to learn a few Easter lessons.  First, Easter is about receiving a gift that you didn’t ask for.  Living in a world where one can pull themselves up by the bootstraps and be somebody, most people these days don’t ask for a Savior.  Or at least not the kind of Savior Jesus is.  We all want a savior from disappointment or a savior from the recession, but Jesus didn’t come to save us from our circumstances but rather our sin.  Stated in another way, he came to save us from our separation from God.  Second, Easter is about recognizing our need for the gift given.  I suppose this goes hand in hand with the first point because you can’t truly “receive something” until you “recognize your need for it.”  That said both are vital.  In my case, once I received the gift my parents gave me and opened the package up, I realized how much I had needed the Basketball encyclopedia (ok, a little melodramatic but you get the point!).  Without it, how could I help my 92 year old grandmother 17 years later on obscure basketball trivia at her Country Club’s Trivia night?  All joking aside, when we receive the gift Jesus gave us, atonement for our sin and a right standing in God’s eternal Kingdom, we recognize how desperately poor we were without it and how lost our existence truly had been.  Finally, Easter is about repentance and getting right with God.  Perhaps I was too vague about how repentance played out in my 11 year old life.  As I mentioned, I devoured the encyclopedia and my parents saw my changed behavior.  In other words, my parents could see that I had repented from my selfish attitude and denial of their gift and I demonstrated this by doing (or in this case using) what they had given me.  I know that many feel this is borderline legalistic in the Easter sense but I disagree.  We receive forgiveness of sins from Jesus’ substitutionary atonement on the cross, period.  But further, as Paul outlines to the church at Ephesus, we are “created in Christ Jesus to do good works” (Ephesians 2:10).  This goes hand in hand as we were saved to do good works.  Make no mistake about it, this cannot happen if Easter is just about forgiveness of sin.  Forgiveness is the vital first step that was purchased for us by Jesus on the cross, but to limit the cross to only forgiveness would be like gaining free access to the Magic Kingdom at Disney World and not riding a single ride!  The point is that life in God’s Kingdom encompasses so much more than just forgiveness and a promise of heaven after we die.  It truly offers the best way to live now, a life with a sacrificial community of fellow believers, and a life flooded with the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and presence.  And while all of this won’t free us from pain or even death, we can go confidently ahead with the knowledge that God is with us every moment of our lives.  We truly have been freed to do good deeds.   

May this be the Easter that you get right with God again!

Sabbatical?

So I got worked up last fall about writing this post all the time.  Give me some grace!

I have done a lot of thinking lately about life, God, and even sports.  I hope to turn this blog into a mixture of my opinions, insights, and humor! Will anybody read it?  I don’t know…

No promises regarding how much I will write.  But one promise exists: I will be me.  Serious. Passionate.  Fired up for the Lord.  (My wife would point out that I am not writing in complete sentences!).

I’m back.