God Moving At Maranatha

It’s Easter, Yay!

I hope you are feeling joy this Easter season.  We serve a joy-filled God who wants His children to be joyful, and Easter gives us the greatest reason for joy. 

On Easter Jesus rose from the dead.  He rose because death couldn’t hold him.  Death is for sinners, but Jesus was perfectly sinless.  The death He died, he died for us, not for Himself.  The life He lives, He lives for us.  His risen life is a picture of what those who are united with Him through faith will one day inherit.  How could Easter not make us joyful?

Once on a whim several years ago, Janet and I went to a laughter club meeting.  Have you ever heard of a laughter club?  It is exactly what it sounds like.  People get together and laugh!  They have nothing in particular to laugh about, but they “ho, ho, ho” and “ha, ha, ha” while they clap their hands or double over while feigning real laughter.

It was an unusual experience for us, and though it didn’t do much for us personally, I am told that many people derive real benefit from these types of meetings.  Apparently, the physical act of laughing can release chemicals in the brain that can actually help us feel happier.

For me, however, that evening brought on feelings of melancholy rather than happiness.  Just two days earlier we had celebrated Easter, and I couldn’t help feeling the stark contrast between the two events.  On Easter we celebrated the profoundest possible reason for joy.  Two days later we were laughing for no reason in particular, and it seemed hollow by comparison. 

While I don’t begrudge these laughers any uplift they may have derived from the evening, I did find myself wishing that each one of them could know the joy of Easter.  Then they would really have something to laugh about!

I hope you take the time to meditate on the meaning of Easter this year.  Let it sink deeply into your innermost being.  It just might make you laugh!  --Pastor Tom