The Beauty of Easter

So Easter is always kind of a hectic time for me.  My sister's birthday is on the 25th of April and sometimes Easter falls near the Masters and school is usually getting to crunch time.  So I rarely get the week of Easter to JUST celebrate Easter.  But today we went to early church and I've got a few minutes to just sit and think about how really amazing it is.  You know how it is, when you're younger the only things you really take away from Easter are eggs and rabbits.  But even as you get into middle school and high school it still doesn't reveal it's true meaning you most people.  Granted some people are very deep thinkers but to me, at that time, all that I knew Easter as was a story.  And even though it is a great story, it's much more than that.

Now for those of you who don't know what Easter is about, I'll try to give the Cliffs Notes version of the story.  Basically this Jesus guy claims to be the Son of God and has performed some miracles and people are freaked out by that.  He has 12 apostles who are like his friends/followers and one of them, Judas, betrays Him and gives Him up to the Pharisees.  They don't really jive with Him claiming to be the Son of God and end up beating Him until he is unrecognizable and then they give him a cross. He is made to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem and to carry it to Golgotha, which is a sort of mountain or hill.  He is then nailed to the cross and left to die.  This is what Good Friday commemorates.  God sent Jesus to die for our sins.

The crazy thing about this story is that Jesus knew all along how much suffering He would have to go through. He wasn't exactly stoked about it either.  But God had told Him that it would save us from our sins. So this is sort of where the story gets interesting.  They bury Jesus in a tomb and roll this enormous stone in front of it to keep people out.  Then on Sunday, Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene found that the stone had been rolled away and an angel told them that Jesus wasn't there but He had risen from the grave.  This is where Easter comes from.  It's like the celebration that God not only sent His son to Earth to live with us but that He died for our sins AND was risen from the grave to go live in Heaven.  How freeing is that? It's God saying that He knows we're going to mess up and that's OK.

It's forgiveness day.  He sent His son to die for us just for our forgiveness! I can't even imagine giving up my dog and letting her suffer, but He gave up His own son!  It's tough for me to wrap my head around really.  Everything from knowing from that He was going to do it to actually letting His son get beaten and basically tortured.  I just can't imagine it.  But that's what it's all about, He freed us. Because He gave up His son, we can live free lives and be forgiven from our sins.  So always remember that Easter isn't just a story.  It's a symbol of the forgiveness the He gave us, and that is something that no one can take away.

One Chapter

Being in college you learn a good deal about things that really have nothing to do with your major, minor, or even school.  The thing that I'm learning the most about is people.  I've started to realize how good of a saying "don't judge a book by its cover" really is.  I was talking to one of my best friends the other day and she was talking about how her friends at school don't know her like I do and like her friends from back home do.  It made me think that what the people that meet us throughout life see is just a glimpse of our stories.  Some people get to read a chapter, some read a paragraph, and some just read a sentence.  But in all actuality no many people at all read or even skim the whole book.

It's only our oldest friends and our closest family members that ever get the chance to read that much.  That's why it's so scary and frustrating to go to new places.  Because as soon as you have some big problem to deal with you don't have anyone to go to about it.  Let's face it, not many people want to hear your whole life story and even if you find the few people that do, it's exhausting to tell it.  It's like trying to give Cliff Notes for your whole life and pick out what was and wasn't important and leave out certain things and exxagerate others.  But the beautiful thing is, that's what God is here for.  He's the only one that has read us cover to cover and knows us through and through.

I make the mistake of trying to internalize my problems or go to someone else about them that doesn't know me.  That isn't always bad but sometimes I forget that God is the best person to go to.  He read my preface, every chapter, and even the boring little side notes that popped up from time to time.  Honestly that's what we all need, someone who just gets us.  We need someone that knows everything there is to know about us and that's what God does for us. He promises to know us even better than we do.  That's the beauty of the relationship, He knows us better than we do. You can't ask for much more than that.

A Scary Truth

So I'm REALLY nervous about writing this post because it's a super controversial topic. However, I have a bone to pick with the Christian community.  This is my community, so that's what makes me nervous, but it's something that has to be talked about. So if I step on anyone's toes I am very very sorry, but the truth hurts.
 
One of my friends from elementary school is an open atheist and the more I talk to him about it the more and more I feel like he has some big misconceptions about Christianity.

For starters, as Christians, we are all by nature hypocrites.  But we have a big problem claiming that title.  Of course our intention is to be as true to our religion as possible.  The only problem with that is that we are ALL sinners.  Every last one of us sins. I don't care if you're the pope, a homeless man, black, white, or Dr. Phil. You are a sinner.  It's tough to really admit to that and to own it, but if you think about it I'm sure you sin every single day. I know I do.  Whether it's judging someone, cutting someone down, or accidently idolizing Johnny Depp, I sin.  For some reason we, as Christians, like to portray ourselves as some kind of miracle to the world that does no wrong.  Maybe that's good in the respect that it encourages us to do less wrong, but think how intimidating that is to non-Christians.  There's no way that would make me want to become a believer if the standard was being perfect all the time.  Plus, it's part of why God is so beautiful.  He sets this goal for us that He knows we can't achieve but hopes that it will help us grow into better people.
"For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard." (Romans 3:23)

The next thing gets really sticky and icky. Church.  I know just as much as every other Christian how vital church is, but at the same time, I get how uncomfortable it can be.  Here's my problem with it.  When being a "good Christian" becomes dependent on going to church.  Now stop what you're thinking right now.  What I mean is that I don't like it when people say "I go to church" as a response to are you a Christian.  Being a Christian isn't about how many times you went to church or how many Bible verses you have memorized.  It's about your relationship with God.  That's it.  Don't get me wrong here, please.  Church and the Bible are two of the BIGGEST tools for a Christian.  The problem is when someone that isn't a Christian that doesn't go to church and doesn't read the Bible decides they want to change their life it gets confusing.

Of course there's no set list of rules to get into heaven but the way I have been taught and what I believe is that church is a community for believers to learn from each other's experiences.  Then the Bible is a source of God's word and stories that help us through tough times and teach us how to live.  Both of them have the purpose of bringing us closer to God. So I'm here to tell you that you can have the entire Bible memorized word for word in three different versions and two languages and it doesn't matter unless you use it to advance your relationship with God.

I guess my real problem with how we treat Christianity is that we have tried to take the passion from it and just make is like a class in school.  Not everyone, but just enough to make a difference.  It just scares me that someone could be lost and finally turn to God for help and then be pushed away by the way religion is presented.  So if you're a Christian, next time you see someone new in church make them feel welcome, even if they're dressed in rags.  Or if someone asks you about sin, tell them how much you sin, it will let them know we aren't perfection robots in a cult.  Be the community that God wants us to be.
"And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all". (1 Thessalonians 5:14)


And if this struck a chord for you and you realized that maybe you've misinterpreted the reason we become Christians, just take a step back and ask yourself, "What's my goal as a Christian?". Hopefully it is to go to heaven.  Then start from there.  There are a bazillion resources out there and it can be scary and confusing, so find someone you trust and talk to them about it.  And when you don't know what else to do, just pray. God will be there.