Death does not get the victory today. In fact, death never has to have the final word again.

Jesus is alive.

And because He has risen, we can rise. Rise above circumstances and sadness and tangled messes of our own making. Rise above any fear of what may come or shame over what already was. Rise – even – above death itself.

Listen, we may believe all day, every day that this ability to rise comes from our own self, done in our own strength, but it doesn’t. It comes from Jesus’ rising. This fact and this day changed everything in this world. It brought Resurrection Power to this world. This act brought hope and marked a new beginning and a new age. It shattered all other deeply held beliefs and sad ways of seeing.

See, we might think this man that lived all those years ago was decent, or even sacrificial, but that His dying has absolutely nothing to do with our living today.

We can think we’re fine without Him and have this whole living life thing down.

We can think the entire idea of Jesus is only for Sundays and holidays.

We can think it’s silly to believe in Him and that He’s just for the weak ones or weird ones.

We can think He’s a liar or a lunatic.

We can doubt Him all we want. His own friend Thomas did. We can keep watching Easter roll on by like a stone every year and keep on rolling over the same old thoughts about it…

Or, we can finally think and do something different. We can stop and question Him. Like Thomas. We can tell Him we won’t believe until we see. Until we touch. We can honestly doubt His rising. Doubt His reality. Doubt all of Him, honestly. Because, He’s not surprised in the least by this. In fact, He will meet us right in the thick and thin of all of that doubt and questioning.

So, doubt all day long, but have no doubt about this… His rising changes us. And it changed everything about our life, whether we acknowledge Him or not.

His rising ensures our future is good and resurrected. His rising means we no longer need to rise our behavior to meet some standard or rise to some new level of acceptable.

His life and death and rising means we can arise to meet Him… rise our face to meet His face free of shame and fear.

His rising, in all ways and in every day, is significant in our lives because it brings us life.

So, go on and raise that voice of doubt, but do yourself a favor, please. Allow Jesus to answer. Because He will. Know why?

He. Is. Alive.

Because He is indeed, risen!

#PassionWeek #LivingLoved

Be brave. Be free. Be redeemed 💛