Fun fact about the Catholic Church: we love a good fast, but we feast even harder.
With the forty long days of Lent behind us, we now inhabit the fifty days of Eastertide, the liturgical period joyfully celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus, beginning on Easter Sunday and ending on Pentecost.
We’ve got the Lent thing down. We pray, we fast, we reward McDonald’s handsomely for inventing the Filet-O-Fish sandwich.
Now what? Now that Easter is here, what should we be doing?
I can tell you this: Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to have us say, “Cool, cool, thanks for the free ticket to Heaven,” then proceed to dutifully pay our taxes, watch a lot of Netflix, live for the weekend, and maybe make it to church a few times a year.
These aren’t necessarily bad things. I’m just saying we were made for more.
His vision for us wasn’t for us to live small, comfortable lives. Of this I am certain. But as for what you, specifically, should do next, I’m afraid I’m less helpful.
The Ten Commandments are the baseline for all of us, but when it comes to the details, God is too creative for a one-size-fits-all, paint-by-number approach.
Discerning His call requires the humility to ask for it and the silence to hear Him. Two things hard to come by these days.
But.
If you can muster up some humility and silence, don’t be alarmed if the thing He asks you to do next makes you say, “What?!”
“Go tell Pharaoh to let my people go.” What?!
“Don’t worry, I’ll split that sea in two.” What?!
“Take down that giant with your little slingshot.” What?!
“Come for a walk with me on the water.” What?!
God’s call for your life often contains some element that feels scary, risky, or downright absurd.
That’s how you know you’re on the right track.
Answering God’s call requires risk. It’s never the safe option.
You might feel tempted to look around, certain He must be talking to someone else.
No. It’s in you He wants to work His miracles.
The good news is that you’re not alone, and it’s not all on you. If you are a Christian, the power of the resurrection lives within you.
Let’s not remain zombies, wasting that power doomscrolling on our phones.
Rise!
God wants to do great things in you and through you. Which is not to say He wants to make you a TikTok star or the mayor of your town. But make no mistake, although you may remain invisible to or under-appreciated by the world, He will orchestrate powerful things? with eternal ramifications.
God is the God of the unlikely. The unexpected. The unfathomable.
A virgin will give birth. What?!
God will become man and make His dwelling upon us. What?!
A dead man will rise from the grave. What?!
What story does God want to tell though you?
James Clavell, a British and American writer, said, “All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they’re any good, the ending is a beginning.”
We made it through Lent. We walked with Jesus in His Passion. But the Resurrection isn’t the end. It’s only the beginning.
The story is just getting good.
What do we do now?
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