It’s Monday…Where are You Looking?

I've enjoyed scrolling through Facebook posts of friends’ Easter photos. We took family pictures, too, and adults stood with several camera phones, trying to capture smiles. In some attempts, one or more in our group had eyes closed, or looked away from center. It was a challenge to have five or six focused in the same direction at the same time, especially when children were part of the group.

Looking in the wrong place often happens. In Luke 24: 8, we read words, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”. Yes, people sought Jesus, but in the wrong place. He wasn’t dead in a tomb, but alive. The tomb was empty.

Friday’s torture, became Saturday’s silence, and then Sunday’s surprise. In a path of contrasts, the ultimate showed up: death to life.  

Empty ... to full, just as He said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."  (John 10: 10). 

So, where are you on the Monday after Easter? Do you still have pieces of a chocolate bunny, or a basket of plastic eggs holding treats from an egg hunt?  Ready to eat that last slice of dessert? Maybe you are laundering the tablecloth and putting china away used at your Easter dinner.

Have you thought about the living among the dead? Have you thought about personal emptiness to fullness?

In the forty days leading up to Easter, I focused on a particular life-giving thought each day in my devotional reading. I reviewed a few this morning: mercy, trust, courage, grace, follow, strength, surrender, love…The list of forty is made possible only through the power of the living Savior. The exchange of my emptiness for His fullness.

We learned if we want photos worthy of a frame or posting for others to see, we need to keep our eyes open and focus in the right direction at the right time.

Looking for fullness of life uses the same principle…
     eyes open, focus in the right place…on the only One who knows we are empty, but wants to fill us with His power to fully live.

The Treasures of a Most Significant Week

Passion week is the most significant week on the church calendar. If you do not have daily devotional readings for this journey, 

a scripture guide for the week follows.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 21: 6-11) 

Palm Sunday, opens a parade of praise, leading to days of persecution: Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:36-37; John 12: 12-19.

Now or Next?

I clocked 1.6 miles last Saturday. No, I wasn’t walking as part of planned exercise. I was on a mission with a list: groceries and gifts. From aisle to aisle, running into carts and people, and looking for parking spots, I checked off items on my list, going to the next store. I accomplished most of my tasks; most-- stores were out of a particular item I was looking for. So, I’ll be looking for that gift the next time I’m out.

We always have a next. It’s the next season, so house and garden stores are overflowing with people looking for plants, shrubs, mulch and pine straw.

It’s the next holiday, and the candy aisle is filled with chocolate and jellybeans.

It’s the next week, and we consult our calendars for appointments.

It’s the next deadline, so I rush to complete a project.

It’s the next due date, and I make sure I pay bills on time.

It’s the next installment of a favorite series. I tune in or record it, so I don’t miss out.

Moving, driving, walking, hurrying… I always seem to run to a next, but what about the now?

When do I stop to enjoy the gift of the now? When do I savor the now? Joni Eareckson Tada wrote about multi-tasking and enjoying the now.  It's a practice worth considering in our multi-tasking and dealing with nexts.

And…this past week, a friend quoted an excerpt from a poem that we studied in college literature.

Earth’s crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God;

But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

           ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

Seems as if I am getting reminders about enjoying the treasure of the sacred now. 
How about you?  Shall we stop to savor the now, or are we busy looking for blackberries in our next?