Happy Easter!

"He longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion." - Isaiah 30:18

I have to admit that the true meaning of things is sometimes lost on me in the repetition of it all. I used to feel guilty about that. I would stand in church on Easter Sunday wondering why I didn't really FEEL all that much. I've heard the story so many times. Usually what I got out of this story wasn't enough. I didn't truly know how it applied to me in a very tangible way. I understood the whole dying on the cross thing, and believed it too. But recently I heard something that changed my apathetic mindset.
Beth Moore said something like this, and I definitely paraphrase:
It can be easy to ask questions about the Crucifixion. You can understand that it was a horrible death, but there's a part of you that's still saying, in a sense, "what's the really big deal here?" Because if you think about it, a lot of people die horribly painful deaths. And when we say, "God gave his Son," yes we agree that's terribly painful, but people lose their children every day. When she was talking I realized that's the thing that was bothering me. Because I hadn't really grasped the difference. When God looked at His once perfect Son on the cross, He knew Christ had to become every perverse and evil thing people had ever done and would ever do. It was an outward action to portray that God wasn't going to hold the people He created and loves so much under strict law, He was going to set us free. He had to make a pretty important point. He was going to set us free from ourselves, if only we would take Him up on it. I for one am slow to learn to do this, but find it to be my very best option.
I'm more "Easter thankful" these days. I'm pretty happy that they found that empty tomb because it means He finished what he started. We can be something we never could have been without this act. Christ made it possible for his Spirit to live through us. That's pretty crazy. The way I think, feel and live can be through my "Holy Spirit filter." His goodness, love and peace reside right here! He made the impossible possible, because He's straining out my humanity and freeing me from all anxiety, guilt and bad choices. I am a work in progress, but I am ever thankful that He will not give up on me. He can't, because the job is already done! WOO HOO.

Makes me think of a Sara Groves song (of course!):
"And this is grace...an invitation to be beautiful."

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us..." - Galatians 3:13