Easter Reflections

My hope, my faith and my freedom all belong to this day. Without this day, or what it represents, I have nothing, I am lost, alone, desperate, ruined a liar and a con-man. I realized the significance of Resurrection Sunday to a greater extent this year. That death was beaten once some 2000+ years ago made me smile all the way to church today. I have celebrated Easter my whole life. I have preached and taught about Easter many times...yet this year, the hope of life after death that was given to me by this day, by my faith in the Resurrection, this hope had a few more familiar faces attatched to it. I will see my mom and my brother again because of a bloody cross and an empty tomb. I am free from the things that drag me down, from my self inflicted wounds, from my unhealthy patterns of behavior, from the guilt and pain of a life filled with disappointing and disappointments, because my faith has a home not in the dirt, hidden behind a stone but in the heavens, with all those who have gone before me...with the risen one...my messiah...my friend and my brother, Jesus Christ.