Resurrection Reflections

Easter is not the most poetic Christian holiday of the year, nor is it the most widely celebrated. Christmas takes the distinction on both those counts.  But Easter is the most important day of the year, dare I say, the most important day in history.  For me, unlike Christmas, there is no 'one way' I celebrate Easter.  I know, shocking... thirty-some odd Easters and I don't have a right way yet.  There are years that I observe lent, and years I don't.  Years that I attend church on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, and years I only get there on Sunday. There are years that I am greeted with He is Risen! followed by He is Risen Indeed! and a hearty rendition of "Christ the Lord is Risen todaaay, Haaaaaaaaaleluiah!".  There have been years I've been to Easter Vigil and times I've gotten up for sunrise service.  Sometimes it's 30 degrees and others it's 90 (and that's just in Michigan!).  I've spent Easter Sunday in the Detroit area, in Holland (MI), Prague, Buenos Aires, and now Bangkok. 

But one thing that strikes me across all the different settings and services and menus and temperatures is an awe that death has been defeated.  That truth and justice and righteousness have won.  I am one of those terrible people who reads the last page of a book, just to make sure that it all ends well before I start reading. With Harry Potter in particular, I needed to know that the right team was going to win. If I were a Lord of the Rings fan, I'm sure I'd be the same way with those. 

You see, I can handle the battles, the ups and downs, the scars and struggles and wins and losses, as long as I know that in the end, Light is going to win, that when it's all said and done Darkness will be defeated.  Easter is both the turning point of history, and the end of the story, the last page in the book.  When Christ rose from the dead, Darkness lost.  When Christ rose, justice was restored, the world was made right. 

What we're living right now, these days of triumph and tragedy, of trials and temptations and turbulence, these are the pages of the book.  And they can be scary pages indeed.  But I keep reading, they are worth reading, because I have had a glimpse at the last page, because I have seen that these moments are worth living because Righteousness Reigns and evil is defeated once and for all.  The beauty of Easter is that the defeat is tense-less: it is past and present and future.  Christ rose over 2000 years ago, he is risen today, and he will come again to rule in all his splendor and majesty.  The beauty of Easter is that it is the moment in time that makes all the other moments worth living.

With Hands Lifted High

One thing I love about moving to a new culture is that I also get to taste a new flavor of God's people around the world.  This week I had the opportunity to go to a praise and worship night. It was hosted by one of the international churches, but it was most definitely a Thai event, and I really liked that.  The vast majority of the crowd was Thai and everything was either said in Thai or translated into Thai (the visiting worship leader, Brian Doerksen, is Canadian). 

It was a joy to stand and worship among Thai believers, especially Thai believers praising God with hands lifted high. I've only been to two Thai churches here so far, and they were both a bit more, emmm, subdued.  Which is fine, completely fine, but just maybe not my favorite style.  I expected (and saw) that kind of outward show of passion in Argentina; it was less expected here.  It was also cool to hear the testimonies that were shared (and I was very grateful to my friend who translated for me!) and hear how God is moving and working in hearts and lives in Bangkok. 

In Argentina I feel like I learned and grew so much in the area of prayer.  That work has continued here, through a friend I meet to pray with on Saturdays and other times of prayer I have had with friends, but I also feel like God is working in my heart in regards to worship.  As I look for a church home (still living in that ambiguity) I've been trying not to allow the music and worship to be much of a factor. But I realized on Tuesday night how good worship can be for my heart and soul when I can get through and connect with God in that way.  It allows me to both praise God and hear from him in ways I wouldn't otherwise.  And while music is certainly not the only thing that is an important factor in The Church Decision, I've realized that it really is okay if it's a fairly significant factor. 

God has been using music and lyrics in powerful ways in my heart, and I can't wait to be on a sheet of ice with my skates and my iPod to just worship him.  There is just something about worshiping from my fingers to my toes, about moving freely to express my heart in motion (and the ice is really the only place I can move freely), about allowing the Holy Spirit to express things through me that words could never say.  And that, I think, is precisely where God is moving and working right now.  I sure hope there are more events like the one on Tuesday night where I can join with this stoic culture in joyful praise and worship of our great God!