An Easter Story

In the Christian faith, Easter should be a joyful celebration, even more so, in my opinion than Christmas because it signifies that our Messiah is risen, and behold, He lives! I must admit there were a series of events that happened today which allowed me to take my focus off my risen Savior.

It all began with me waking up a little earlier than usual this Sunday because I knew it would be packed at church. So, I rushed out of the house with my breakfast in hand, and I remember thinking to myself,

"I didn't even take the time to greet Jesus this morning."

As I drove into the packed parking lot, I sat in my car waiting for the first service attendees to leave. I watched patiently with my blinker on as an adorable interracial family put their two little ones in their car seats and drive off. As I was swinging my car around to park, I noticed a woman standing in the parking space motioning to me that she was saving the parking space.

I rolled down my window and said, "Excuse me, ma'am?"

"We're parking here, " she said, without looking me in the eye, while no other vehicle was in site.

"Ma'am I've been waiting here for about 10 minutes for this parking space," I said in the nicest way I knew how.

"Fine then...you can have it!" As she stomped off.

Wow...Happy Easter! Is that what we're concerned about? A parking space? I've seen people do that kind of nonsense at the mall during the Christmas season, but never at church. Are our mega-churches of America beginning to take on the worldly characteristics of the parking lots of Wal-Mart and shopping malls?

I tried to not let that bother me for too long, I went inside and found my seat while visiting with fellow church members. Then lo and behold...another distraction would be brought my way on this Easter morning. My ex-boyfriend and his family, who lives out of town, came to worship at my church this morning, and in a sanctuary that seats 5,000 comfortably where do they sit? Yep, you guessed it-directly behind me! Now, there are no hard feelings, but I just prefer for them not to sit right up on me...ya know? So now all I could think of was, "Wow...are you really going to let the people sitting behind you distract you from praising God for His Son?" Well, the answer to that, my friends unfortunately was, "yes." I just could not focus on Christ.

Later that afternoon my mom asked me a simple question which would lead to a debate, and me feeling rotten because I over-reacted, which was probably a reaction to the events earlier in the day. We're fine now, but it just sucks to get upset with the ones you love...Especially on a day with an emphasis on forgiveness!

Isn't it peculiar what Satan will use to distract us from giving God our best?
Satan already knows he can't mess with my salvation, but he sure did do a good job at trying to steal my joy on the of occasion the resurrection of Our Lord!

I am grateful to God though that despite the crazy events of today, I can wake up tomorrow and celebrate His resurrection just as if it were Easter Sunday! In fact, we should celebrate every day that the tomb was empty, and Jesus currently sits at the right hand of the Father interceding on behalf of me and you.

He is alive, he's not dead, he's not asleep!

So, while my Easter story was a rotten one, praise God that His Easter story is a glorious one...to be celebrated every day!