Yesterday Jesus Rose, Today It's Our turn

​Yesterday was Easter. The day we commemorate and celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead.

The real power in Easter isn't in yesterday, though. It's in today. The present. The day we are reminded that it's our turn now.

Jesus rose yesterday; today I rise.

Jesus rose from the dead to assure us that we too will rise when our earthly bodies finally give out. But Jesus rose to also assure us that we can rise from the many graves we bury ourselves in long before that day comes.

Jesus rose from the dead to assure us that we can rise from every single place we feel stuck. In fact, Jesus rose from the dead to implore us to not stay stuck there ever again.

For our graves, they aren't always tombs.

They are sometimes relationships, or addictions, or health challenges.

Sometimes they are our jobs, or our friends, or our worldviews.

Sometimes they are fear of failure or rejection or embarrassment.

Sometimes it's the shame and guilt stories we have on repeat in our minds.

Sometimes our graves are these things we know we can change in our lives, things we know we need to change, yet get up every day and for one reason or another we don't change them.

We get up, but we don't rise. Instead, we crawl back into the graves of the things that continue to hold us back.

Yesterday, through Easter, Jesus was sending us a message for today. Jesus wants us to hear him say, I rose from the dead, I now live in you, there is nothing you can't rise from.

Today is April 1.

One quarter of this year is gone.

Maybe you made some commitments at the beginning of the year to make some changes in your life. Made some commitments to crawl out of some graves you had been living in. And maybe today, you find yourself still in those graves.

Well that's okay.

Because yesterday was Easter. Jesus rose from the dead. But the Easter story isn't a yesterday story, it's a today opportunity.

An opportunity to rise.

Because as much as Easter is a reminder that we will overcome death, it's a reminder that overcoming death isn't always an end of life experience.

Many of us, including me, can have periods of death long before we die.

Until we rise.

Yesterday Jesus rose.

Today, today is our turn.