Breathe Easy

It's over, so now what?

Every year, we as Christians spend a lot of time building up to Easter. We pretty much start all the way back at Christmas - oooh, Jesus is born! He is born to die. Then, we have Fat Tuesday and Ash Wednesday and enter a period of Lent, when we are supposed to be preparing our hearts and minds but really, we're just thinking about whatever it is we've decide to do or not do (or not eat) for 40 days. Then comes Holy Week. 

There's something to do every day this week, but we tend to center ourselves around Maundy Thursday (the Last Supper), Good Friday (oh no! Our Lord has been crucified), Good Friday night (It is finished), silent Saturday, and then, finally, Easter Sunday (oh, good. The grave is empty. Hallelujah!). 

Easter Sunday is pretty much our Super Bowl. It's the day that we invite our friends and loved ones to come to church with us. It's when we get to really show them the cool thing that happens when the tomb is empty. It's the day we get to declare our faith...and hopefully get others to declare theirs. Easter is our outreach. It's our gamechanger. It's our victory - not just because of the empty tomb, but because of the full pews. 

Easter is it. 

But Easter is over. It's Monday again. 

So now what? 

There's something in our souls that wants to breathe easier today. That wants to just take a big, deep breath of relief. Because the tomb is empty and our eternity is secure, yes, but also because, whew, what a whirlwind the Christian calendar has been for what seems like such a long time. We want to come to rest in just being in Jesus. We want our lives to simply reflect Him. We want things to be the way they are supposed to be. 

But do we really have a plan to live post-resurrection? 

This Easter thing we do, we put so much into it. We pray harder. Fast longer. Discipline ourselves more intensely. Then, somehow, we expect that life just settles in and that it's just good. That it just becomes routine. That we don't have to try as hard any more; our life is forever changed. 

Are we living like it's changed? 

The disciples were hiding in the Upper Room, unsure of what to do with themselves. They didn't know what came next for them. They weren't sure how to live the next day. Are we any better off? 

The question I want to think about this week is whether your Monday looks different because of Easter Sunday or if we really do lose it all just that fast - all the wonder, all the discipline, all the excitement, all the faith. We have always talked a lot about what we do with ourselves on silent Saturday, but that's the question for Good Friday. 

The true question of Easter is what do you do with yourself on Easter Monday?