Easter Every Day

[The Midweek Encounter is a ministry of Encounter Church in Kentwood, MI. These posts are a reflection on Sunday’s message, which can be heard here each week: http://myencounterchurch.org/#/hear-a-message]

The day after Christmas is always a rough one for me. While the tree and decorations may still be up, it just feels different. The day I’d been looking forward to for weeks has now come and gone. It’s a melancholy day, full of the memories of the day we just celebrated but with the tinge of sadness that comes with something being over.

The day after Easter is not the same at all. I went back to work, and besides the “How was your Easter?” conversations and a few flickering thoughts of the past weekend, it was a Monday like any other.

It shouldn’t have been though. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, should be the biggest deal of all. We celebrate Easter not just because the actual physical resurrection of Jesus coming back from the dead happened once and is something to be celebrated, but because it’s the one-time thing that should affect everything we do.

The world tells us to live to the full because we only live once. Have fun, throw caution to the wind, don’t be bothered about how your actions will affect your future. But as Christians we know that’s not the case—not only do our actions today affect our earthly tomorrow, but our ultimate tomorrow as well. 

Therein lays the beauty of Easter when we allow it to become something we experience every day: the promise of Jesus’ resurrection is that it can reorient everything in our lives.

Easter every day means giving up the things that are no longer good for us.

Easter every day means letting go of the idea that what we do doesn’t affect our future.

Easter every day means leaving behind what is easy for what is best.

When they saw him for the first time after his death, Jesus’ disciples were full of joy and amazement that he was alive and standing before them. It’s the same joy and amazement we’re privileged to have all the time, because we know that Jesus is alive and active and transforming us. Easter every day reorients all of our desires so that they fall in line with our ultimate desire following Jesus more closely. It’s not an instantaneous change, but a slow, gradual conforming of our lives to be more like Christ’s.

There shouldn’t be a “day after Easter letdown” nor should the day after be just another day, because the importance of Easter should be woven through the fabric of our everyday lives. 

[Brianna DeWitt attends Encounter Church and lives, works, and writes in Grand Rapids, MI. You can see more of her musings on her personal blog at http://awritespot.wordpress.com and on Twitter at @bwitt722.]