We had a very special Easter Service this morning at St James Church. The children shared the Easter Story and the whole school sang beautifully.
The Easter story brings many challenges to our door relating to faith and the attitudes with which we face in our lives.Some things that seem possible are impossible and, likewise, some things that seem impossible are possible but unless we witness them first hand we have to decide whether to have the FAITH in what we're told about them. Over Easter Christians celebrate the belief that Jesus died and rose from the dead. How far you each believe this is your choice... but if we do have faith in the resurrection of Christ, what does it mean for the way we live our lives?
If a water bottle is full to the half-way point is it half-full or half-empty? Of course, it depends on how you look at it. This is a good image, I think, for how people look at life: some focus on all the things that are going wrong and wake each day with a sense of dread, while others focus on the things that are going right and give thanks for the things that they are grateful for. It was like this for the characters in the Easter story; as the disciples and followers of Jesus lost hope and saw their world crashing down around them only Jesus could see the positive side of events as they unfolded. He faced his death with serenity because he knew that his suffering was part of a bigger plan and that he would rise again.
Christians believe that on the first Easter Sunday, Jesus rose again. He came back to life, defying the expectations of his friends and his enemies. We also believe that that in this event good overcame evil, life is stronger than death, light shines through the darkness and the half-full bottle is superior to the half-empty bottle.
And that's the challenge for us: if we believe in the resurrection we need to take the half-full approach to life. Life undoubtedly has its challenges for each and every one of us but with a belief that the bottle is at least half-full we can tackle those challenges head on and overcome them.
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