As we head into Easter I regularly deal with people worried about Easter Bunnies, about colored eggs and even the word Easter. The word actually appears in the King James version of the Bible and literally means beginning, as in the beginning of the Christian Calendar. The Resurrection is the beginning for the Christian Church. While Good Friday does lay the ground work for the resurrection, it is the resurrection where death is defeated and new life begins. It is the resurrection that gave the church hope. On Good Friday hope seemed dashed, but Sunday came and revealed through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that the cross was not defeat but triumph. So Easter was canonized in the early church as the beginning of the Christian calendar.
This year as I prepared for Easter during the season of Lent (the 40 days of preparation) I decided to cut off social media and other media to clear my head, and to clear my schedule. It was one of the best lenten decisions I could have made. Lent isn't about giving up something, but about preparing, and sometimes that leads me to give up something to make room for that which is truly valuable. So we fast, not to deny ourselves but to make room. Sometimes people fast meals so they can spend that time in prayer instead of eating. Sometimes we fast from other activities. I my case, I fasted from media and spent those hours normally eaten up by Facebook, television, and radio to renew my relationship with God and my family. Now as I head into Easter I am experiencing new resurrection power in my personal life.
Have you experienced resurrection power? The power of the Holy Spirit to bring back to life things in your life that seem to be lost, dead, or dying? As we head into Easter to celebrate the resurrection let me invite you to tap into the resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead, and will can raise you to new life as well, regardless of how dead things may seem. There is hope in the power of the Resurrection.
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