So, I am sitting at my desk, trying desperately to focus. I should have already finished this month's newsletter article, but instead, I just feel crabby. “I don’t want to write an article!” I keep repeating in my mind, as though throwing a temper tantrum will help the situation. The logical side of me is saying, “you should write about Easter, or the Resurrection, or “Living the Easter Spirit” or some other inspiring sort of article like that. But, I cannot quite seem to get there. My spirit refuses to be joyful.
And, yet, in spite of my desire to give up and go home for the day, I realized that dealing with my grouchy attitude is exactly the kind of message that we should be preaching in this season of Easter. In spite of outward appearances, Easter is not about being happy.
It is true that Easter is full of beautiful flowers, and happy, joyful music. It is easy to get carried away in all of that and assume that the Story of the Resurrection is supposed to make us happy all the time. It usually does make us happy, because it is, after all, very good news.
But, the fact of the matter is that our faith does not run on feelings. There will be days when you just plain feel grouchy. And there is little that anyone can do or say to break that grouchy mood within you. That’s how I felt when I started writing this article.
Nevertheless, the good news of the gospel is not dependent upon our moods. It is still good news, even if you don’t feel it. Hebrews 10:23 says, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful.” You see, the Resurrection is good news because it proves God’s faithfulness, not ours. We hold unswervingly to the gospel even on grouchy and depressed days, because we know without a doubt, that whatever our mood is today, God’s love for us will never falter nor fail. God’s love could not be stopped by our moods or even by death on the cross. God’s love is with us always. Thanks be to God! Amen.
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I've been a "grouchy old man" all my life - now I'm growing in to the role ungracefully. I've always been a "glass half empty" sort (and it's a dribble glass at that...).
But God's love is neither half empty nor half full; it is over-flowing. "My cup runneth over." (Psalm 23:5) The Spirit is always flowing like a river. (Revelations 22:1-5)
To most, living eternally means never dying - I hold on to my old life while trying to also have a Kingdom life at the same time! I want my earthly treasures and heavenly ones both; having my cake and eating it too - what's mine is mine and what's God's is mine...
Yet God loves His prodigal children; He has plenty of love for all, even me! Good News indeed. To live the resurrection, to be reborn, I must first die to self. If I pour out the swill in my cup, God can fill it overbrimming.
But darn it, it took years of my blood and sweat to fill that cup! Then I remember another cup with someone else's blood - a new covenant of love I can always trust. A cup running over.
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