“ … ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!’” (Luke 24:5b).
Making the transition from the tomb to a walk of resurrection can be a difficult embrace. It is for me, for I am comfortable in my grave clothes. I am used to my ashes and my sorrowful surrenders. Christ’s journey to the cross is wrought with just enough human emotion and melancholy to hold my attention and limit my perspective. I understand the confines of Calvary’s tomb, for the tomb is what I am due.
Instead, what I am given is a gift that far exceeds my understanding.
A gift that includes…
A rolled away stone.
A new set of clothes.
A walk out of darkness and death into the marvelous light of real living.
A Resurrection.
Easter scripted God’s message to humanity over 2000 years ago, and yet I continue in my struggle to receive its grace. How can I…how can we…begin the walk of our resurrection?
We begin by listening for the whispered voices of the tomb. By receiving the message of the first Easter as heralded by those who stood guard to pronounce the benediction to Christ’s grave.
“ … ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!’”
Our walk of resurrection begins by our looking for the living One amongst the living…not by our eulogizing of a death that could not contain him.
We search for Christ in our today and tomorrows rather than glancing back at our yesterdays. We move beyond the graveyard to take hold of the road ahead. A living, breathing journey that requires our participation and refuses our conciliation to sit on the sidelines in surrender. In defeat. In deference of a walk that we deem to be too sacred…too holy…too consecrated for the soles of our sinful feet.
A resurrection walk means that we engage with life. We vision life through a new set of lenses that host an eternal perspective rather than a temporal focus. We perceive God’s sacred possibility rather than man’s probability. We bath our minds and hearts with the truth of God’s Word. Words that say…
~Life and death is ours to choose. A choice for life means a choice for God. (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).
~Life cannot be found in former things. God’s new thing stands on the horizon. Even now it bursts onto our stage. Resurrected living brings about its perception. (Isaiah 43:18-19).
~God’s plans for our abundant living trumps the enemy’s plans for our death and destruction. (John 10:10).
~A resurrected walk includes the unseen, unheard, and beyond conceivable preparations of God whose love reaches far and wide…long and deep. (1 Corinthians 2:9).
~Possibilities are God’s probabilities. (Genesis 18:14, Matthew 19:26, Mark 9:23).
Simply put, a walk of resurrection means leaving the grave as Christ left it.
Empty. Void. Barren and defeated.
Too often, though, I choose to linger in Friday’s embrace. I run to the tomb with my ointments and perfumes in hopes of preserving the remnants of a Jesus I once knew. My eyes remain fixed on things seen…controlled things…things I can get my mind around rather than the unseen Promise of a third day resurrection. Instead of leaving the grave as Christ left it, I begin to fill its void with my many needs.
Fears. Questions. Doubts and unbelief.
I miss the victory of Easter because my lack of faith limits the Christ of Easter. And limiting Christ is the one posture of the heart that can keep these feet–mine and yours–from our intended walk of Resurrection.
Christ didn’t go all the way to Calvary and back so that we would continue in a life that boasts tombs and grave clothes. No, Christ made the journey to the tomb so that we could bypass its confinement. So that we would start living in the new, abundant, inconceivable possibilities of his lavish grace. So that we would begin our participation in the resurrection walk that leads us from the graveyard into the spacious land of the living and that will one day soon…lead us straight to his feet.
Today is a good day to examine your location in the Easter story. Are you lingering at the tomb…looking for the living One amongst the dead, or are you walking in resurrected living with the risen Christ as your compass? Which road hosts your heart? I know which road should. It is the road that extends beyond the grave. The one-way street paved with the blood of Calvary’s surrender that reaches in only one direction.
Home.
To life eternal with the living, risen Savior of the world. A resurrection walk that breathes with the sacred possibilities of the sure and living Lord. It is the only walk I want to make, and so I pray,
Lead me, Lord, from the tomb into your glorious walk of resurrection. Dress me, Lord, for such a walk…leaving the grave clothes where they belong—in the tomb, alongside all of my fears, doubts, and unbelief. Forgive me when I am tempted to limit Calvary’s work to a cross and to a grave. Move me beyond the confines of Friday into the glorious promise and light of Sunday. It is a pilgrimage I can make…should make…because your feet first walked the road of its surrender. Let not your sacrifice be in vain, …in my life and in the lives of my friends. Lead on, O King Eternal. Full throttle. Straight ahead…until I am finally home and see you face to face. Amen.
Hi Elaine,
I am so excited to hear that you are coming to She Speaks. I found out through Joy’s blog and Holly mentioned last week that you two are rooming together but I didn’t make the name connection until today. Joy is one of my prayer warriors and encouragers. How did you girls meet? I Love that you are now encouraging each other and meeting at She Speaks!What a small world – what a big God!
Blessings,
Renee
Renee:
Joy and I met via blogging only a few weeks ago. She has been an incredible source of encouragement to me, and when I suggested to her that she should come to the conference…well, the rest is history.
Can’t wait to meet you in May in Goldsboro. I am loving your mini-Bible study on John 4 and can’t wait to dive into your material later today.
peace~elaine
Hey…Renee and Elaine…two of my favourite friends…just have to join in :o)
Elaine, THANK YOU for your words of encouragement to my heart today…God’s Words to me. The scripture you included – powerful! I’m trying so hard not to linger in “Friday’s embrace”. I long for the victory of Easter.
Galatians 2:20 begins, “I have been crucified with Christ…” On Good Friday, I died. The verse continues, “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation.” Alive. Easter living. Resurrected life. Christ lives in me through the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 1:20 tells me that every promise is ‘yes’ in Christ. Easter living is trusting all of God’s promises. Guaranteed promises. “My God will meet all my needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.” God wants to hear His promises being praised in my life.
I can’t look at my circumstances. The cross reorientates all my assessments. The cross killed death, so that there could be more life. Our Pastor said on Sunday, “It was through the hard thing (cross death) that we get the high thing (life). All things are not as they appear.
Psalm 116:9 says that God has delivered me to walk among the land of the living with Him who has everything available to me.
Abandoning my grave clothes and soaring with Him,
Joy
PS. Elaine, thanks for being my back-up on I-40 :o)
Elaine,
You are such a powerful writer! Sometimes I have to make myself slow down while reading so that I can absorb all that you are saying! And I mean that in a complimentary way. You have an excellent mastery of word pictures. The Lord has truly blessed you with literary talent and I know that He is pleased that you use it to glorify Him.
Keep up the great work!
Marilyn in MS
Marilyn:
Your kind words humble me. Sometime I have to slow down too when writing my work. I never know where God’s going to lead…I simply know I must write. I notice in your profile that you also like to write. Ever thought about creating a blog and putting your words down for the rest of us? It’s real simple…I promise.
I also notice that you volunteer as a peer counselor at a crisis pregnancy center. I have a tender heart for women needing this ministry. Please read my blog entry entitled “beyond zero” and share it with your women.
God bless you for visitng. You can email me anytime with the provided link on the side bar.
peace~elaine
Elaine,
Thanks for encouraging us all to celebrate the resurrection instead of dwelling on Good Friday.
Love the newborn little lamb; the picture at the end of your post is a visual sermon all its own!
~ Billy
Elaine,
I too have a tendency to linger at the tomb with grave clothes on. It seems so hard at times to just shed those clothes and trust him. Thanks for the encouraging words and the reminder that we need to move forward and trust him. Love you! Lynn
Thanks for dropping by. Some of my teen “friends” think I have great wisdom, our dogs name is snuffie and some of them read a book, Blue Like Jazz, and decided I should write a book called Grey Like Snuffie. They were always coming to me to talk about life and God stuff and thought I knew it all—HA. The older I get the less I am convinced that I know. Been walking with God for 39 years and I feel like a babe. This is definitely the most bizarre season of life so far. My blog is definitely NOT writer’s quality. I’m just throwing around a lot of ponderings.
Oh, Elaine – what a marvelous post!! Thank you for referencing it on the LPM blog. The picture of the newborn lamb (and the one at the end of the post too) was just priceless. [With a last name of Wooley I have a special affinity for sheep! GRIN]
What marvelous encouragement to throw off the grave clothes and walk in resurrected life in our piligrimage with God! I’m saving your blog to my favorites and look forward to reading this particular post several more times to let all the wonderful truth sink in.
Look forward to getting to know you too – love these siestas! My oldest daughter and her family live in Greenville, NC. Is that near you at all?
Could it be that grappling with Grace is the sum and substance of the Christian’s ‘mid-life crisis’? Not a new lover, but a new comprehension of the nature of our relationship with the first Lover of our very being. Grace is not fully defined until it is defined in the heart. I remember my own Aldersgate with tears of thanksgiving. When I read your image of ‘new clothes’ I thought of how your dad loves to tell the “Ragman” story. Thanks, Elaine for today’s memory journey.
~~Muz
I forgot—the picture at the top of my blog is looking through my cherry tree towards my front porch. Been re-reading your post. I loved it, sensing I’ve been walking for a long time and suddenly I find myself sitting under a beautiful tree, resting with Him–very strange for me and I long to walk in His lavish grace. Good thoughts.
Thank you Elaine for your comments on my blog I will tell my Son also let your daughter now that I will keep her in my prayres as well…
I loved this post thank you for sharing it…