preparing for Easter
Tomorrow is Easter Morning. He is risen, He is risen, indeed. I cannot wait to wake up and celebrate the most important event ever. We will rouse the 3 teenage girls sleeping downstairs so that they can go dance in 2 sunrise services.....then get ready and prepare food and go to church. We go to church most, if not every Sunday morning.....but Easter Sunday is special. It is celebration. It is recognizing the the grave no longer holds him. He conquered death.....and defeated Satan....and we have Victory. In. Jesus.
Thursday night we had our Maundy Thursday service. I was supposed to have a part in a play that re-enacted the death of Jesus. Our ministry director asked me to do it a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning and I said "sure" but didn't really think it through. For a week the script sat in my church bag and I never looked at it. Sunday afternoon came and I knew I had to go to practice that night, and for the next 4 weeks on Sunday nights for 3-4 hours and prepare this show. I felt sick. I felt......wrong. I felt displaced. Why did I say yes to this? I am not an actor. I cannot perform. I get nervous. Sick, even. I experience spiritual attack.....I'm not strong enough to walk out the stations of the cross on Maundy Thursday. I'm just not. I should not have said "yes" but when the ministry director asks, I want to ease her burden and make life easier......blech.
Because I have the joy and honor of being in a Christian marriage (and I do not say that lightly) I told my sweet hubby that fateful Sunday that I just could not do it. Drama is his gig, not mine. Please, can you just do it? You will be awesome. She (music director) will be grateful that she doesn't have to hunt down someone else because she knows you can do it.....and with a heavy sigh he agreed. He's busy. He has alot going on all the time. I stayed home and took care of home and hearth and he went to prepare for the Stations of the Cross presentation for Maundy Thursday.
It was awesome. He was significant. The script he read and shared and delivered was things I say all the time. There was weight in His words that would not have been there in mine because I say them so much. His tears and emotion were raw and valid. Mine would have been fragile. Because I am fragile, really. I am so proud of my husband for doing that hard thing and leading us through the stations of the cross before Easter....and I feel protected because He took care of me when he took that responsibility off of my plate. His parents came. They got to see him be awesome.
I need to not be awesome in front of crowds. I need to be home with my family. I need to watch the kiddos jump on the tramp and answer questions about Jesus and the cross.....and pray life-altering prayers with my kids when they feel ready to surrender to Him. I need to do baths, and feed dogs, and read books. I need to give motrin for headaches and melatonin for sleep.....and boil eggs for teenagers so that when they get home tonight, they can decorate them before they go to sleep.....all in the name of tradition.
Easter. We didn't do the local Easter egg hunt in our town this morning. It's kinda lame. Instead, we had brunch with Gramp and Gram Kredit before they headed out to spend the rest of the holiday weekend with Roger's sister Laura and family. Then we started cleaning up our yard. We raked lots of dead, yucky leaves and revealed new perennials budding close to the surface of soil. We got sun-burned and wind-burned and worked our muscles and lungs. We started the work of opening up the pool.....and Roger got his motorcycle out of storage. We have one vehicle in the shop so a cycle was helpful. Thank goodness it started!
Tomorrow is Easter. We will worship. We will fellowship. We will eat together. We will enjoy family....and rest.....and Jesus. He is so worthy. He gave so much....not so that this world would feel good, but so that the next world would matter! May we all consider what lies beyond our today and tomorrow.....and consider what the cross offers us in forever. That is Easter.
Thursday night we had our Maundy Thursday service. I was supposed to have a part in a play that re-enacted the death of Jesus. Our ministry director asked me to do it a few weeks ago on a Sunday morning and I said "sure" but didn't really think it through. For a week the script sat in my church bag and I never looked at it. Sunday afternoon came and I knew I had to go to practice that night, and for the next 4 weeks on Sunday nights for 3-4 hours and prepare this show. I felt sick. I felt......wrong. I felt displaced. Why did I say yes to this? I am not an actor. I cannot perform. I get nervous. Sick, even. I experience spiritual attack.....I'm not strong enough to walk out the stations of the cross on Maundy Thursday. I'm just not. I should not have said "yes" but when the ministry director asks, I want to ease her burden and make life easier......blech.
Because I have the joy and honor of being in a Christian marriage (and I do not say that lightly) I told my sweet hubby that fateful Sunday that I just could not do it. Drama is his gig, not mine. Please, can you just do it? You will be awesome. She (music director) will be grateful that she doesn't have to hunt down someone else because she knows you can do it.....and with a heavy sigh he agreed. He's busy. He has alot going on all the time. I stayed home and took care of home and hearth and he went to prepare for the Stations of the Cross presentation for Maundy Thursday.
It was awesome. He was significant. The script he read and shared and delivered was things I say all the time. There was weight in His words that would not have been there in mine because I say them so much. His tears and emotion were raw and valid. Mine would have been fragile. Because I am fragile, really. I am so proud of my husband for doing that hard thing and leading us through the stations of the cross before Easter....and I feel protected because He took care of me when he took that responsibility off of my plate. His parents came. They got to see him be awesome.
I need to not be awesome in front of crowds. I need to be home with my family. I need to watch the kiddos jump on the tramp and answer questions about Jesus and the cross.....and pray life-altering prayers with my kids when they feel ready to surrender to Him. I need to do baths, and feed dogs, and read books. I need to give motrin for headaches and melatonin for sleep.....and boil eggs for teenagers so that when they get home tonight, they can decorate them before they go to sleep.....all in the name of tradition.
Easter. We didn't do the local Easter egg hunt in our town this morning. It's kinda lame. Instead, we had brunch with Gramp and Gram Kredit before they headed out to spend the rest of the holiday weekend with Roger's sister Laura and family. Then we started cleaning up our yard. We raked lots of dead, yucky leaves and revealed new perennials budding close to the surface of soil. We got sun-burned and wind-burned and worked our muscles and lungs. We started the work of opening up the pool.....and Roger got his motorcycle out of storage. We have one vehicle in the shop so a cycle was helpful. Thank goodness it started!
Tomorrow is Easter. We will worship. We will fellowship. We will eat together. We will enjoy family....and rest.....and Jesus. He is so worthy. He gave so much....not so that this world would feel good, but so that the next world would matter! May we all consider what lies beyond our today and tomorrow.....and consider what the cross offers us in forever. That is Easter.
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