4/18/2006

Reflecting Easter

Getting sick Easter Sunday afternoon (extending even to today -- though I'm definitely on the mend) gave me less chance to reflect on this year's Easter experience than I would have liked. (I can't believe I'm hearing things like that out of myself -- that 6-week sabbatical has got me doing so much more pondering -- it's extraordinarily uncomfortable for me as I was several weeks ago -- and so refreshing for me as I continue to move forward in faith.)

Easter was filled with nice outfits and warm greetings. The worship was inspired and I was moved by the music, the preaching and the prayer. There was definitely an energy in the sanctuary all morning long.

And just a few hours later I felt awful. I started feeling just a little bit 'off' and it progressed into something really nasty. Nausea, achiness, 'digestive issues' and a general sense of "blecchh!"

And today is so much better -- and I know tomorrow will be better yet.
I see some kind of obvious resurrection-type connection with the experience -- but it's all reversed. It was on Easter that I got so sick -- and it's now that I'm not all the way better -- and I'm looking forward to the time soon to come where I'm healthy again.

My wife noticed the sunny Good Friday and the gloomy Easter Sunday and commented that it was reversed, too.

Why couldn't God use Easter to remind me that I am completely incapable of doing it on my own? Why couldn't God show me a beautiful Good Friday and then an Easter that turned into a nightmare? God is still revealing something new -- our calendar can't define when God does what God does.

Maybe there could be a new phrase now -- It's Easter -- but Wednesday's comin'!

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