Easter as Experiencing

And talking with each other about all these things that had happened.  While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them.  Luke 24:14-15

If Easter begins with exploring, it is also a season to experience.  Whereas exploring is active, sometimes an experience happens beyond our constant control.  Exploring puts us in the driver's seat, setting the course.  Experiencing is an invitation to enter into a moment where maybe we don't have everything figured out.  Often experiences put us in the passenger seat, there might be unexpected or unseen exit ramps.

Explore...experience...in a beautiful dance.  One where we take the lead and the other where we are whisked around twirling in the arms of the holy.  Of course there are many experiences where we follow our plots and plans to a "T".  But other times, things go awry and astray quickly.  I am thinking specifically here of family vacations.  We try so hard to make sure our time together is meaningful...magically.  But then, usually in the middle of the week, the wheels come off.  All the together time starts to confine us.  Something we wanted to do has a hiccup that causes our schedule to go out the window.  We bicker.  Arms get crossed...things get said...that we almost immediately regret.  Experiences are invitations to be in the moment.  It isn't about the past...making this vacation as great as last year.  It isn't about the future...if we don't see the biggest ball of twine right now the whole week is ruined...ruined I say! (Sometimes we get a big overly dramatic).  To experience this moment...in all its beautiful mystery.  Really, stuck in traffic?  When we suddenly start to share one highlight of the trip so far.  Or we start singing with the radio...much to my son's disappointment.

Experience this moment because it is overflowing with more than we could possibly explore.  Experience this moment because it is enough.  Experience here and now.  I wonder if part of what led the disciples down the dusty road to Emmaus is trying to process the pain of the past.  They walked and talked about all that had happened.  From casting down cloaks, being open and vulnerable.  To breaking bread with friends to heartache and heartbreak of God's friend to the idle tales of Easter...trying to make sense of it all.  They had experienced it...and now they are looking at the rear view mirror.  A great author said, "Life is lived forward but understood backwards."

There is much grace in processing the past experiences.  To constantly be open may not be realistic or fully realized for us.  It is hard to be a monk or mystic when the laundry needs to be done.  But sometimes folding the clothes causes my wife and I to start laughing...in that experience I remember that in the not-so-empty tomb there was an abiding joy of God moving in amazing ways.

That still is true for us today...may we experience that truth this day and this week.

Grace and peace ~~