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Perpetual Easter
Happy Easter everyone!
Christians and Non-Christians alike know that Easter Sunday is a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, but what does Easter mean for us every other day of the year?
The English biblical scholar NT Wright said the following in 2008:
Easter is about real life, not escapist fantasy. Easter is about Godâs judgment, calling the world to account and setting up his new, glorious creation of freedom and peace, and summoning all people everywhere to live in this new world. Easter is about Godâs rich welcome to all humankind. We Easter people are called to celebrate all of that in practical ways as well as in glad and uninhibited worship.
I love all the adjectives Wright chooses.
New
Glorious
Freedom
Peace
Practical
Glad
Uninhibited
Be honest with yourself.
Is that how you would describe your daily life?Â
Is that how you would describe the world?
Probably not. The world and the media that reflects it arenât exactly beacons of hope. Instead, Wright explains that we find ourselves in this nihilistic state when:
âŠleft to ourselves, we lapse into a kind of collusion with entropy, acquiescing in the general belief that things may be getting worse but that thereâs nothing much we can do about them.
This isnât how we are called to live.
Despite what your own experience with Christianity may be, the promise of the resurrection is not that we amble through a malformed world only to die in the hope of reaching a perfect, utopian heaven. Instead, Jesusâs teaching on prayer was for us to pray that Godâs kingdom would come on earth as in heaven.
Wright provides context when he writes:
The prayer had been answered, in advance of the final putting right of all things, Godâs new world had indeed begun, âon earth as in heaven.â Jesusâs bodily resurrection from the dead was an event that so comprehensively shattered the normal patterns of this world that it launched nothing short of new creation. The first Easter then, was par excellence in the event of Godâs kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven. As we pray every day for Godâs kingdom to come, we are praying that we will be shaped more and more by that Easter reality, rather than by the prevailing and sometimes persuasive ârealitiesâ that the present world tries to offer us.
âEaster reality.â
Easter isnât just a day. It is an event that we are experiencing and responding to in perpetuity. It is the call to live a new and glorious lifeâone where we are free and peaceful. A life both practical in wisdom, yet uninhibited in gladness and joy.
We are not trudging forward in the hope of getting to heaven.
Instead, we are invited to be complicit in the minute-by-minute renewal of our world.
There is, of course, beauty in our annual reverence of the Easter miracle. But we can also choose to live a perpetually Easter-forward life.
Orwellâs Merits of Selfishness
The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they abandon individual ambition-in many cases, indeed, they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all-and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, wilful people who are determined to live their own lives.
I re-read Seth Godinâs The Icarus Deception over the last week and this quote from George Orwell jumped out to me.
I have certainly felt âsmothered under drudgeryâ at various points of my life, many coming in the decade between turning thirty and turning forty.
This paragraph is an excellent reminder that we can live, contribute, and serve others without abandoning our own dreams and individuality.
My Favorite Thing Iâve Read In A While
Jen Vermet is someone I met during Write of Passage. Her 2021 Annual Review is one of the most beautiful, valuable pieces of introspection Iâve ever read.
Donât worry, I hear you. You are saying, âannual review? Dustin, itâs April dude.â
I know! Iâm going to bring this all full circle to the concept of living a perpetual Easter.
Perhaps you need renewal.
Maybe you read the Orwell quote above and said, âwow, Iâve abandoned my individuality in favor of the safety of simply being a cog in the machine.â
Perhaps you know itâs been a long time since you truly took inventory of all the compartments of your life and asked if you were truly living a free, peaceful, uninhibited and joyful existence.
If so, Iâd deeply encourage you to read this:
My 2021 Annual Review â Jen Vermet
Take a moment, digest it, read it again.
âRead it twice?! Iâm busy.â
No. Youâre hurried. Thereâs a difference. đ
Thank you for reading, have a joyful week, and I will see you next Sunday! Please feel free to share it with someone else if you enjoyed this newsletter!
Iâd love to connect! So follow me@beingdustin, and letâs chat!