Happy Easter?

When I was a boy Easter was a big deal, what happened?  How did a bunny, colored eggs and pretty new clothes become Easter?  I don’t know (I do but, I would digress) and I don’t care to debate.  Never cared about debating religion, God or Jesus; I just prefer to believe.   Maybe that makes me simple minded but religion and all it entails has been debated around me most of my life and frankly I’m tired of it all.   I could debate it in fact I know more than you may think, like my Dad I’ve read the Bible straight trough many, many times, but that makes me no expert.  In fact the more you read and the more you study the more confused you can become (sometimes much study can drive one crazy).  It’s a mystery and one I believe cannot be solved in a lifetime.  Here is one of my favorite movie lines from RUDY “in all my years of religious study I have come up with two hard incontrovertible facts, there is a God, and I'm not Him”.  This is how I feel. 

My Dad stop going to our family church because he had his own path I guess.  It tore our family apart because at the time the church we did go too Dad was a major part of it.  Dad went to another church so different that my Mom could not wrap her head around it.  He thought they had it right, but then when he found out it was built more on greed and creed, he then stop going anywhere all together.  The rest of the family be damned!  Yes I said it, because now I’ve come to believe the way my Dad handle things back then was very SELFISH!  Me and my family lacked leadership, I was lost.  I lost so much those years, Christmas, Easter and the right to talk openly about God.  Dad’s way of thinking was he knew the truth; it was up to others to find it out on their own.  Is this the way it works?  Well one thing I believe for sure is this; the purpose of this life is interaction with others (this coming from one not good at it).  We are all in this together, some chose to help others, some chose to hate.  Jesus said go tell, not keep my secrets.  His message was good news, still is.  Thanks to some family members I was introduced to Jesus and he showed me his father who I vowed to serve.  This is the way it works; one person reaches out to another, tells them how they found peace and then the choice is up to you.  That my friend is unselfish faith!  I could site so many examples of this that I have witness in my lifetime, a person coming to know Jesus and their life is changed forever….and they say there are no miracles today. 

Myself, I was a poor leader too.  My example of a Godly man was poor at best.  I’ve had my struggles as well (more with people than with God).  It has not helped me with how I lead my family.  We took our children to church because we wanted them to know the God that we knew.  He has been very good to my dear wife and I.  But churches are not always the best examples for young minds (people even Christians can be cruel they are people after all), and when you see your dad struggle as well I guess it can lead you to question this Jesus/God thing.  Some believe let your children figure it out for themselves, but as a parent you have to lead, without a leader good or bad, a nation, a group, a family will parish.  And your kids will follow your example, good, bad or indifferent you are leading your kids towards something…..a very scary thought.

I use to tell my kids the way people treat you is neither Jesus nor God’s Fault, God did not create robots.  Yes the buck stops here, so everyone wants to blame God for lives woes.  Stop you’re whining, life and its difficulties is the human races fault end of story!  We are like spoiled children.  Let’s say there is no God and we all just evolved and evolution is not a theory but fact.  Well it’s still on us.  That’s right it’s our fault the way people are and how they treat others because we evolved into selfish me monsters.  Let me ask you, if you could, would you not give your children a perfect home, all they could eat and a life of leisure?  Yes, you would be super parent.  Now let’s say you go away for a year (repeating after myself: you go away for a year).  When you come back, instead of finding things perfect for your precious children (like you left it), they have destroyed everything you gave them…. because???  They did not work for it and have nothing invested.  So life is hard either God made or manmade.  So I have faith God made me, made a life of Joy and hardship so I may learn, grow and someday be reward for my faith by shedding my human skin burst out of this cocoon and fly home. 

Easter is a day of remembrance that we can all rise again and be renewed or you can stay in the dark behind the rock.  The choice is and has always been yours.  Roll away the stone; don’t let this world put its seal of doom on your soul.  There are angles all around waiting to guide you to the light.  For some reason though we like the darkness even though we may say we don’t.  We like to hold on to our blanket and believe it’s safe.  The sad part is no matter how much you feel you have created a safety net in this life, that veil will be ripped from your hands one day and you will see truth in all its glory. 

The best part of my work day is this.  My wife and I hold hands and pray.  We pray for our children, their children, our family; we pray that God will wrap them in his arms, keep them safe and give them peace. Then also that somehow through the day we can make a positive impact on someone’s life.

So this is my Easter story; this is what I know to be true.  Now ask yourself, what do you believe?  And how is that working out for you?