While enjoying my church’s Easter service this past Sunday, I must confess I began to daydream. Now let me be clear, I wasn’t bored with the service or hoping I was somewhere else, I just began to think about my personal understanding of Easter. With most religious celebrations, I want to make them personal and meaningful outside of tradition or “going through the motions.” Easter is a difficult event for me. The story of Christ’s death and resurrection is dark and painful. The mixture of sorrow and joy is hard to wrap my mind around in one weekend of remembrance, let alone in a one hour worship service.

            With a heavy mind and heart, I left the sanctuary to the sunshine of a beautiful spring day. As the warmth and brightness surrounded me, I was tempted to go on about my life without another thought of Easter. But as I began to think about a wonderful Easter lunch, I felt my spirit in conflict. Was the life and teachings of Christ relegated to just a calendared set of church events each year, or was there more to it?

As I left the church parking lot, I realized Easter was more than just a holiday or a church service. It is a way of life and I am determined to live the resurrection daily. In other words, to believe in what Jesus taught and lived I must help clothe the naked, care for the orphan, feed the hungry, heal the sick or else my words and celebrations are meaningless. I am beginning to realize that my faith is more than Sunday services, sermons and hymns; it is following the teachings of Christ in order to bring about social change. I must be willing to help create a world, as Jesus said, “where the first are last and the last are first.” If I am unwilling to daily take part in the power of the resurrection then I am missing the point and it is all for naught. So I say let the resurrection be more than just a church event, let it be a way of life that provides hope, healing, and change.