Easter afternoon, members of Cathy and my family got together for some good conversation, and you guessed it, more delicious food! I was in heaven.
Easter is called “the 3rd day” in Christianity because it is the 3rd day after Good Friday. Great things happen on the 3rd day.
The Monday after Easter is sometimes called the 4th day. The excitement and energy of the day before drains away. The day after great weekends can bring the Monday blues. This Monday’s “4th day” did that to me. The 4th day was even harder because the 3rd day was so good.
Here is what the spring sunshine of Easter was replaced with for our church’s beautiful flower cross on Monday.
After an Easter Sunday of not knowing or worrying about what was going on in the world, I checked my phone and found myself dragged down again by the evil, cruelty, and just plain negativity and meanness I read about.
Can’t everyday be like my Easter was this year? With sunshine? A beautiful worship, and well attended too? Family being together? And, of course, eating all the great food I could want?
The answer seems to be, “no,” everyday can’t be like that. It wouldn’t even be good for me in the long run if every day was like that!
But as I face the 4th day, and the 5th day, and the 6th day with their gray, dreary, cold, and wet weather, and the darkness I see in the world, what can I do? Maybe your 4th day, 5th day, and 6th day don’t seem much fun either. So, what can we do?
After some pondering, here are a few ideas that came to me.
-First, I don’t want to forget all the good things Easter’s 3rd day brought. I want to keep the memories and have them for the hard days. But it doesn’t help to continually dwell on them.
-I don’t want to forget the past dark days I have overcome. It doesn’t help to wallow in them, but I am encouraged, and amazed, when I think of how much God and others have helped me through. There have been low days, but better days always eventually come.
-And on Easter I was reminded how important being surrounded by fellow overcomers is to me. In my family, that includes my extended church family, I am surrounded by people who have been through greater difficulties than my 4th day woes. These people inspire me to hang on. They are a life-giving force to me.
One of those people is Gene, a member of our church, who has seen his share of life’s ups and downs. Gene not only patiently listened Easter morning to my stories of playing in my first disc golf tournament the day before, he said he’d like to try it. So, now I have a new disc golf friend to look forward to playing with! It’s pretty cool that Gene is over 90!
Can't help but share a picture from my first tournament. Got to play with my brother, Joe!
Keep the faith!
-Jeff