RESURRECTION?
They tell me it's spring. That's what it says on my calendar; March 21st, "First Day of Spring." Well, it's April 10th now, and I'm looking out my front window and I feel a little deceived. It may be officially spring, but from where I'm sitting, it sure looks like winter. The sky is gray and the ground is white. There are no leaves on the trees. The grass is still brown. From my perspective, we are still living in winter.
Winter, in a certain sense, is characterized by death. At least to me, when I think of the winter I think of the death of the living vibrancy that inhabits summer. Winter is a cold, dull, quiet, even death that consumes the entire landscape. It is beautiful, in its own way, but by the time April hits, winter feels mighty old. The winter of the soul is very much the same. We are Christ-followers, we've heard and believed that death has been defeated in Jesus; in His resurrection. Life has come! Death is undone! The only problem is, from where I stand, I still see a whole lot of winter, and sometimes very little spring.
Maybe I'm just a pessimist, seeing only the negative aspects of a fallen world, and not recognizing enough the redemption at work around me and in me. To be fair: I have seen life overcome death in people around me, in myself. I've seen addictions die, hatred dissolve, hard hearts melt like ice in the sun. I've seen life come to houses where once only death lived.
Sometimes though, I look out and all I see is the winter. You've probably been there. How do we reconcile the tension between death seen and resurrection hoped for? This is a continuation of last week's message from Malcolm and blog subject. How do we hold both the Already and the Not Yet in healthy tension?
Jesus said to Martha in John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
Jesus' very presence IS the resurrection. Do you believe this? How do you live this truth out when death seems so prevalent?
Winter, in a certain sense, is characterized by death. At least to me, when I think of the winter I think of the death of the living vibrancy that inhabits summer. Winter is a cold, dull, quiet, even death that consumes the entire landscape. It is beautiful, in its own way, but by the time April hits, winter feels mighty old. The winter of the soul is very much the same. We are Christ-followers, we've heard and believed that death has been defeated in Jesus; in His resurrection. Life has come! Death is undone! The only problem is, from where I stand, I still see a whole lot of winter, and sometimes very little spring.
Maybe I'm just a pessimist, seeing only the negative aspects of a fallen world, and not recognizing enough the redemption at work around me and in me. To be fair: I have seen life overcome death in people around me, in myself. I've seen addictions die, hatred dissolve, hard hearts melt like ice in the sun. I've seen life come to houses where once only death lived.
Sometimes though, I look out and all I see is the winter. You've probably been there. How do we reconcile the tension between death seen and resurrection hoped for? This is a continuation of last week's message from Malcolm and blog subject. How do we hold both the Already and the Not Yet in healthy tension?
Jesus said to Martha in John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
Jesus' very presence IS the resurrection. Do you believe this? How do you live this truth out when death seems so prevalent?
posted by Journey Church at 8:45 a.m.
1 Comments:
It's really hard when things around you seem to either be standing still or falling apart to believe in the "Spring" as heartily as you do when things are great or moving forward. I have found myself actually asking myself at times "do I REALLY believe that?" But I always come around and know that I do in my heart, even as I'm asking that question- my focus just gets thrown off by all of the distractions in my life every once in a while.
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