To Rise

He is risen!  Happy Easter Everyone, may you experience the joy and hope of a brand new day!  One of the best things about Easter is the time in which we celebrate it; at the beginning of Spring.  It is the perfect time to rise above the darkness of a long a dreary winter; it is the perfect time to reflect on where we are going, both as Christians and as humans.  Like spring, Easter is a time for new beginnings!  

For my readers who are not in Cleveland, you will be happy to know that we have been blessed this past week with some absolutely beautiful weather.  The temps have been in the 70's and 80's and Easter Sunday, although they are calling for a little rain shower, should be another glorious day.  But Easter is more than just a season, it is a challenge and a special calling for each of us.  What are we being called to do?  Rise!  How can a mortal body rise, you ask?  Simple, we rise above.  

Have you ever heard or used the phrase "take the higher road?"  This is what I'm talking about.  As Christians, we are asked to rise above many things, like pettiness, rudeness, jealousy, anger, the need to retaliate, the desire to pervert, selfishness, sadness, and temptation.  We have a perfect example in the resurrection of Christ on how to do this.  He shows us that when we take the higher road we have chosen to "rise" above these things.  

Let us take this opportunity to be the Christians we are called to be this Easter season and let us begin by taking His rising more seriously.  With God all things are possible, even rising ourselves...body and soul.  We are more than just flesh and blood we are spirit as well, and we have the ideal example of how to live in the spirit by encountering Jesus rising every day in our own lives.  We can be examples to others of doing what is right not necessarily what is popular.  When we are being challenged and we want to take the easy way out, let us take a moment to see the fork in the road and choose the road that will lead us closer to our own resurrection.  The goal here is to live in eternity with God and so we must decide how we will get there. 

So many of you have invested in those GPS systems for your car (I haven't yet but then again, where do I go?) For those of you who have them, don't you think it's great to have someone telling you what do to every step of the way so that you don't make a mistake and get off track and lost?  We have a spiritual GPS also, it's called the Bible.  Read it.  Commit it to memory so that when you are confronted with which road to travel you will be sure to take the high road, the road that leads to salvation, albeit, the road less traveled.  

Happy Easter to you and your families.  May the Lord guide you and bless you on your spiritual journey to "rise" above....