Let me tell you all a little bit about my Dad – If you know him you’ll get a kick out of these anecdotes – if you don’t, let me introduce you.
Here are a few things to know about him: He is faithful to follow the Lord in all things, he is the hardest working individual I know, he provides a steady place in the midst of chaos, and he is bold to share the truth of God’s Word. My Dad is all of these things – but he is also a complete jokester. I cannot tell you the number of times in my childhood I sat there flabbergasted at him. I recall so often feeling this weird mix of emotions – I wanted to be infuriated at the situation and yet I just keep laughing. Let me give you an example, this was a conversation I had on repeat as a child:
“Dad, I’m hungry”
“Hi hungry, it’s nice to meet you – I’m Bryan.”
“NO DAD – I mean I am hungry for food”
“oh right – sorry about that – it’s nice to meet you Hungry for food”
and so on…
See what I mean? You’re annoyed – but you’re laughing. It’s hard to stay angry or get your point across when the jokes on you.
So when Easter rolled around in my childhood things got exciting. Back in the day – before all the others came along – it was just me and my brother – we would sit in my bedroom and wait for Dad to finish hiding all the Easter eggs. After what seemed like a million years, we were finally released from our “prison”. We would rush into the living room and then the chaos ensued. We would run around occasionally shoving each other out of the way to reach the easily hidden eggs. Then, things would begin to settle down and all the easy eggs were gone. Now only the hard ones remained, as I recalled before – my Dad is a jokester – so he did not go easy on us with those last few eggs. As we would frantically look, my Dad would sit on the couch and say things like “I can see it from here” or “You should be able to reach it from where you are standing” and so on and so forth. All the while, we have NO IDEA where the egg could be. Eventually, He would give us enough hints so we could finally figure it out – most of the time, it was hidden in a place we never could have navigated to on our own.
One year in particular, after the egg hunt had ended, my Brother and I began to fight in the classic childhood manner – we bickered about who had more candy than the other and things escalated until finally my Dad came over – took our baskets and dumped the entirety of them into the trash. “This is not what Easter is about” He said.
If you’re a parent or you have any exposure to young children I am sure you can imagine the scene:
Tears stream down our faces.
Screams come loudly from the back of our back throats.
Two children just watched what they consider to be the most important thing in the world – their candy – get thrown away.
But the point here isn’t about us, it’s this: my Dad, like so many other times in my life, was right. That was not what Easter is about. Easter is about our Redeemer – the only one who came, died, and rose again. It’s not about the things we are holding on to or the sins we carry. My Dad physically threw away the thing that was distracting us from reveling in the glory of our Savior.
As we get older, it’s not candy we get caught up in throwing away: instead its relationships, addictions, our singleness, sinful passions, our discontent.
Figure out what it is for you and throw it in the trash. Is it difficult to do? It should be. Let the tears come, let the screams out – but at the end of it all GIVE IT UP.
Maybe you’re in a place where you can’t think of anything you desperately need to give up, maybe instead you are searching for something and you just can’t seem to find it. I would challenge you to question if you are relying on your own vision. What you need is the eyes of the maker, stop relying on your own strength and trust in His infinite wisdom. He created you, He knows you, and He will navigate you to the most blessed places.
Make this life about the risen savior not the temporary things of this world. Because those things will not satisfy. They won’t fill the part of your heart you are constantly looking to fill. Let the Lord be your guide and surrender to His will.
I say all of this knowing full well that I am on the same journey as all of you. I sit here humbled knowing that the Lord is molding me each and every day. Come join me for the ride, its refining – not easy, but completely worth it.
Happy Easter my friends, He is Risen indeed.
