Happy Easter
Disclaimer: This blog was supposed to be posted yesterday, but a combination of a busyness with a team here and slow internet prevented that from happening!
Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Have you ever read something, seen something on television, or heard someone say the absolutely perfect thing at the perfect time? It is more difficult than we realize because this phenomenon cannot really happen when there has been an obvious setup or it ceases to be the “perfect time.” We have all seen shows that do not last because they cannot create this “right thing at the right time” situation without it being corny or without manufacturing punch lines. We have all known people (I actually am one of these people) who try to create situations and moments where they can say the right thing at the right time, but it was so clearly setup that it loses its effect. And probably the greatest challenge in writing is to create conversations and situations that seem natural and flow while still getting your point across in a powerful way. Read this line from Luke again to see what the perfect thing at the perfect time looks like…
Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Just last night, after her bath and right before we put Sophie to bed, I told her I loved her and gave her a kiss. She proceeded to say, “I love you Daddy” and then said “I love you too” in this really loud and really cute voice. It was pretty much the perfect thing for her to say and for me to hear after a pretty long day/week. She has this uncanny ability to go from crazy and defiant to cute and lovable in a flash, and the way she says, “I love you” is about as awesome as anything I have ever heard. In fact, last night, I was thinking that there are not many things I would rather hear than Sophie say, “I love you Daddy.” And then I read this:
Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
I was trying to think of something clever or really deep to write about for Easter, but then I realized some things. I am not really overly deep or clever, and neither is the Gospel Message. We have a tendency to make things much more difficult than they are and to try and overcomplicate even the simplest of things. At the same time, and especially in our American culture, we have begun to rely on memes and tweets that say something “profound” in as few words as possible. So what often happens is that, instead of having real conversations that simply lay out our ideas and thoughts, we post other people’s thoughts, other people’s memes, and other people’s tweets in a “mic drop” fashion. We think these words have the power to win our argument when in reality they do little other than fan the flame of discord among people whose beliefs are more similar than they would ever admit. So I don’t want to post a meme or a tweet or my own version of a clever blog. I want to focus on this simple verse on this wonderful day:
Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Happy Easter because Jesus is alive! We do not need to search for the living amongst the dead, but we need to center our lives on the risen Savior.