Searching for Strength

 

This week we are exploring various ways to be open to discovering God woven and working in our lives.  Sometimes these moments come as a surprise, catch us off guard.  Other times, we arrive at a moment praying to encounter the Eternal.  Easter holds both.  For example, Mary went to the tomb on the first Easter not plotting or planning on Resurrection.  It takes time for Mary to awaken to God bringing life from death (and as we heard on Sunday, it takes even longer for the disciples who were locked in a room to be aware of the holy hovering in their lives).  New life can be a surprise because it comes packaged in change.  And you and I know that change can be challenging.  Look around your life right now to places where change is slowly at work.  This can come in the form of age, relationships, volunteer opportunities, or the countless subtle changes that are always happening.  One of the great contradictions of life right now is that while we often get excited about what is new and next, there is something in our souls that will crave the familiar and known.  Hold that tension.  The moments we long for things to change (which is always a slow process), but as we take a step toward that new direction and destination that is something within us that points out all the flaws of the moment.  We are great at pointing out what isn’t quite right, so better to turn and go back to what is known.  One part of the Holy surprise on Easter is that Jesus was both familiar/recognizable and different.   Jesus was instantly recognizable and at the same time had changed.  Not only could he now enter rooms that were locked, as we heard on Sunday.  I love how Mary could not see that it was Jesus on Easter, thought him to be the gardener, perhaps because her eyes were full of tears, but upon hearing Jesus say her name, she knows!  I have seen the Lord.  Where has the holy surprised you recently?  Maybe this week as you prayerfully complete the sentence, “I have seen the Lord…” you might fill in the blank of that sentence today with places you’ve been surprised.

And Easter-ing can be moments of intentionally opening our attention to God.  You do this every Sunday when you come into worship.  You enter a time of prayer and praise ready to encounter the Eternal.  This happens differently each week.  Sometimes it is a hymn or anthem or sentence in a prayer or seeing someone you had not seen in a while.  I pray every Sunday you leave worship able to complete the sentence, “I have seen the Lord…”

Being open to God as God enters our lives in ways that surprise and we anticipate.  Being open to God as God moves about each moment of today.  That is being an Easter people during the fifty days of this season.  It is a prayer practice and posture.  May you and I sense God's strength sustaining us every day this week.