easter is coming...

okay, this video has nothing to do with easter directly...except that it totally does.

when's the last time you felt alive? has it been a long time?

there are seasons we go through, sometimes days, sometimes months, and sometimes years of feeling stunted, cold, almost lifelessly going through the motions of our day-to-day activities. we hate this experience and yet it is common to all of us, no one escapes the dreariness, the sensation that we've lost contact with the joy of being alive.

so then easter comes along and reminds us that resurrection is possible...more than that, resurrection is accessible, but somehow we miss it again whether we believe in God or we choose to deny His existence. all of us, in the western world, have heard in abundance (and for many in annoyance), "Jesus died for our sins." but somehow the message always misses it's mark because it is lost in a sea of messages that make it seem like an advertisement rather than an invitation, and so, all of us--athiest, skeptic, and believer--are eventually anesthetized to the voice buried beneath the noise...

interesting that our experience, in some seasons--of trudging through life feeling like we're buried beneath the weight of the world--is a lot like that buried voice, that message that is always being repeated in some form or another and recanted because it is lost in translation.

this story is the most famous story ever told--because it is all of our story. this story begins with frustration, overwhelming circumstances, fear, anger...this story begins with death. but it does not end there, death is only the beginning. we face into our story and see beyond the storm, the fog, the numbness a small sliver of light and we move toward something greater, something hopeful, something alive. the deadness of our experience becomes an opportunity to admit that we need more than what has carried us in the past. and for those who reach out, for those who persevere... a new life is unearthed from the grave of our sadness. this is our story, this is God's story too.

what i like about easter is that we finally get to hear something new--something we never really believed...even though we felt our own longing for such a miracle. we hear "Christ is risen." and that tells us something we didn't already know, and something that cannot be anesthetized because it means Jesus is nearby, He is living, moving about, showing up wherever He wants revealing that our story doesn't end in death. whether we believe in Him or not, we're not immune from His voice anymore because it's no longer buried. we understand more than we feel comfortable admitting. He loves us and He's closer now than ever before.

easter is coming...