Easter Monday

It is the Monday after Easter. For most people it is simply another Monday. They go to work, they enjoy a beach day with the kids who are off from school for spring break and they simply go about their lives. For pastors and other ministry types, it is a day of trying to get through the fog. It is a day of reflecting, thinking, planning and coffee!!!

Easter Sunday is the Super Bowl for pastors. It is the one day when people who we won’t see again until Christmas or next Easter are in the service. It is a day of a thousand extra details. It is the day where everything that doesn’t go according to plan sets us off. I am not sure any of this as externally fueled. I don’t think anyone else has such high expectations of us, but I know my standards are pretty high on Easter Sunday.

So, today I am sitting in my office in a fog. I am exhausted. It is not the physical act of getting everything done, but the emotional and spiritual battle that has been waged in my mind and heart for the last few weeks. Easter is always looming out there. We know it is coming and we love it, but the level of anxiety we feel every Sunday is ramped up all the way to 11!!

Yesterday was amazing at LifeQuest. People who had never been here before were here. People who have been only marginally engaged were involved and committed. And people who have been the backbone of this ministry for years took their ministry to a whole notha’ level!! And now it’s Monday.

In six days we will all gather together again to celebrate Christ. We will all worship and reflect on the fact that the God of the universe loved us so much he stepped out of heaven and walked the earth. There will not be the sense of expectation. There will not be the sense of excitement. There will not be a special breakfast or an Easter egg hunt. But the truth of the day will be the same: Jesus is ALIVE!!!

So, on this Monday after Easter I will enjoy the fact that the one that was dead is alive and that I, the one who should be dead, is alive in Him.