Tonight was my favorite night of the year. Tonight is the night we celebrate the death of Jesus Christ. In my life I have a short list of definitive moments. I count my selection into TAG in the 3rd grade and meeting Judy Combs as one of them. I also rank meeting my wife high on the list.
Also on the list are having my kids, taking my first painting class with David Dunlap, and applying for a job in eastern Nebraska (my derogatory name for western Iowa).
But when it comes to the big picture, when it comes to eternity... I have a shorter list. Number one on that list was getting my arm twisted into coming to my first Easter Walk. To see my students preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to me, a prodigal son... trying his best to flee from God... It was life changing. It started a process of defrosting my heart, a process that saved me, not just from any short-term consequence. It saved my SOUL. Saved from death. Saved from the wiles of the devil and saved from the bondage of sin (I'm working on that last one... some days are better than others).
Tonight was our Easter Walk. It was just like other years but even more glorious.
Pastor opened in prayer. I sang an offering song, It was Love, an original. Then Amanda read a great set up about the passion. I may try to post it later. She did such a great job. She has come so far since last year when she read some stuff for League. She is becoming a great leader, public speaker but most of all, her heart is becoming every day more a reflection of Jesus Christ.
After a Michael W. video, we sent the audience to the stations. They returned to find Jesus on the cross. When they take him down it is so heart breaking. The guards place him in the tomb and the stone is rolled across the entrance and boom it is shut. And my Jesus is dead... and my Jesus is in the tomb.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Calla did the closing prayer. It turned into a soul-searching event with each member writing a private confession on a slip of paper and placing it at the foot of the cross. I don't know when last I felt so convicted by the Holy Spirit in that building. I wrote my prayer... "Be a better husband. Be a better father. Keep my relationships right and pure. Give me strength to be the same person at church, at school and home and in the dark when no one is watching. Thank you for dying for me and thank you for not giving up on me. AMEN"
After everyone had laid their confessions at the cross, folks filed out. But Two girls, still dressed in their bible-era costumes, made their way up to the alter and sat down cross-legged and held each other and wept, prayed, comforted and shared private stories. Mostly they wept.
I was really worried. Twenty minutes went by. I was taking down the cross and they still sat there on the floor and shed tears. So I asked Amanda what was wrong. Could I help her? How can I fix whatever got her so upset. She answered in words I won’t soon forget.
She said, "It hurts to know why He is up there. And not just why He's up there... but everything I do is right there with Him. And WOW! It gets me."
Speechless, again I see the glory of God revealed upside-down. The poor made rich. The weak made strong. The teenager made wiser than her youth leader. She just didn't cry during the video. She just didn't cry during the prayer or the confession. Her heart was touched. She was changed. It will take her a long stretch of time to process the extent that God loves her... And I am humbled.
God, work through our group. Work through our Easter Walks. Work through our kids. May they ever point to you and your sacrifice. AMEN.
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