You take 15 hours of time driving down the road w/ 3 relatively quiet kids. An iPhone full of my favorite worship songs & signal to casually flick through Facebook news feed and this is what you get on Easter Sunday...
lots of "Happy Easter!" status
Photos of cute little families all dolled up in their finest attire dressed for what appears to be church.
Baskets upon baskets full of loot & toys for kids reminiscent of Christmas morning.
Photos of dyed eggs, lots of candy filled plastic eggs.
Now don't get me wrong I have pics of my kiddos in new outfits, hunting eggs &
You chalk me up as another judgmental Christian & stop here if you wish. Fine by me...feel free to click the back arrow or little "x" at the top of your screen. But honestly this isn't about me judging. Obviously if they are showing up in my news feed they are either family, friends or acquaintances that I know and love regardless of our differing beliefs. People who I know are good people. Contributing members of society. Some I've known a long time, others not so long, even some I've gone to church with in the past.
Christmas. I'm not one to freak out and rant about people who during the Christmas season choose to say Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings. It's not a panty buncher for me to see my news feed full of the miscellaneous holiday greetings during that time. I personally make a point to chose Merry Christmas, but to each their own. Not exactly sure why that doesn't bother me, but this has gotten under my skin. Well, I think I do know, but I'm not there in my rant yet. I'm in that scatter brained-can't-breath-because-I'm-on-a-roll point. I guess the "winter" holidays are celebrated by many different faiths all focusing on giving and gifts so maybe even one who doesn't follow Jesus can still celebrate and feel a part of the love & giving that makes up the holidays. Or maybe they do believe Jesus was born b/c a baby being born and growing into a nice guy helping others isn't that far fetched of an idea...well there's the whole immaculate conception part, but everyone can chose to focus on only the parts of the story they wish. That's human nature.
But back to Easter. THAT is strictly about Jesus CHOSING to suffer immense torture and die a brutal, bloody and slow death for ALL of us. For me, for you, for the person you love most in the world and even for that person you can't stand. Quite frankly he would have still died if it had only been you on this planet. *stop. adsorb that for a moment*
And I think THAT right there is why I'm on this rant. If these folks dressed to attend church Easter Sunday to mark it off their list until Christmas or the random other Happy Easter people truly, TRULY believed that He died for them and faced that head on. Embraced what Easter is, believed it and accepted ALL that it meant they would be FORCED to change their thinking. Their life. Forced to submit to someone else other than themselves. Surrendering everything to His will, His plan. Bluntly- their life could be turned upside down and I understand how scary that can seem. For those hurt by the people of the church- I'm sorry, or those not wanting to associate with "organized religion" I want to emphasize- this is about a personal relationship with Christ, NOT being a church goer. I'll be the first to admit the church is full of sinning humans...a popular descriptor is hypocrites. Yep. You're right. Dead on. However, hopefully that is why they are there...seeking forgiveness and help.
I guess it's feels worse in my book. A birth is a happy time so everyone gets the "happy" about Christmas. Death seldom is. Well, thanks to His death and resurrection we do have hope & peace that should we follow Him in this life our death is not the end. But when non Christ followers dawn their fancy cloths and celebrate egg hunting with family, shower their children, who like mine, need not one.more.toy w/ no thought to the real meaning it's sad. It makes me sad b/c I wish they could see the blessing of living for Him. I wish they could feel the joy in the happy times, the peace & comfort during the hard times that I feel. I desperately want for them what they don't necessarily see is available to them. It also hurts & gets me defensive b/c they are taking lightly something my God did that was very big, very hard and so very selfless. Boils down to...it feels like an insult to the death of my savior by celebrating the day, but not living for him.
This is the place I could do all sorts of disclaimers to explain what I'm trying to say as to not hurt a reader or not seem mean...b/c that is my personality...something like- it's great if non-Christ followers end up in church on Easter even if their main intent is to only go that day b/c I'm sure for many across the country they feel welcomed or feel a pull to return and do. I did have news feed items that were focused on Christ. I'm not claiming personal perfection-far from it. I do my best to live for him and probably fail in some way each day. Blah, Blah, on and on I could go, but I'm guessing if you've gotten this far in my rant you probably get what I'm trying to say. And if you don't agree, yet have hung on to the end I pray what you take from all of this is the stirring this caused in me is mostly b/c my desire is for everyone I know and love to see, understand & follow Him so we can be together in celebration after this life.
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