He is Risen !!

"Why seek  ye the living among the dead?"  Luke 24:5

The women who walked to the tomb that morning had no idea it was Easter morning.  Their best friend and teacher had died.  For them it was the loneliest and darkest moment of their lives. That's the way Easter begins for all of us.  The joy of resurrection is not possible without the reality of death.  They had brought spices to anoint the dead body of Jesus.  But there was no body.  There was only an empty tomb.

Regardless of what you believe about Jesus having died and coming to life again, the story of Easter is very true.  It is possible for any of us to die and live again. We need not look any further than our own psyches and emotional systems. And we need to ask ourselves the question "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"

And why do we keep anointing the same dead things as if we can cover up the decomposition and the stench?

We all live among dead things like worry, regret, and fear.  We live among a pantheon of negative emotions. These emotions always appear to be very alive, very real but they don't really exist.  Well they only exist in our minds and emotions.  If they are only in our minds then why don't we simply change our minds? Isn't there a pantheon of positive feelings that are just as real?  But how can I say that these emotions are real when I've just said the negative emotions are not real?  They are real because no matter what things seem like at the moment, everything is going to be ok. Even if the things you worry about, regret and fear come to pass, the reality will remain that you're going to be ok.  None of those things can end your life unless you choose to end your own life. The life forces that were born when a single-celled organism was born millions of years ago will still live. And even if something destroys every living thing, everything, then life will find a way to begin again.

Those life forces surge in you.These life forces have a multitude of definitions in religions and cultures over several thousand years.  But they all come back to one simple truth, "Life will find a way."

As a teenager,  struggling with darkness and despair,  the words came to me, "David, if everything is going to be all right, then everything's all right." I can tell you that everything did not feel all right for a very long time.  The truth though, the reality is that everything was all right because everything is all right.

But how can I say that? When we look at all the hate and horror in the world things certainly don't appear to be all right ?  That's just the point, you don't have to only look at all the hate and horror in the world.  No matter what has just happened in Belgium, Iraq, South Carolina or Chattanooga, you choose what you see. You can see the devastation and the carnage, or you can see the living things.  The living things of love, hope, beauty and healing always survive. These things are just as true.  They are the only things that are eternally true. "But the death is still there", you say, "The loss is still real."  These things are only an empty tomb.  You can fill that emptiness with whatever you choose. You can feel the tomb with anger, hate, depression and despair, to you can fill it with life.

Today is Easter Sunday, 2016.  Just like that first Easter morning, the illusion is that death and emptiness is the end of the story. Those men in dazzling white said to the women, "He is not here. He is risen!"  That is the message of Easter. That is the truth. That is the choice. You can choose to anoint the dead or celebrate the living. It is no more difficult to live in the light than to embrace the darkness.

Those women ran back to tell the disciples what had just happened, "and they believed them not."  Just because they didn't believe them didn't make the story untrue.  It was only untrue for them.  The reality of the risen Christ was very real to those women. The men then had a choice of whether to believe them or not and they chose not to believe. Their unbelief didn't change the truth.

When life gives us an empty tomb, we always have a choice.  It's Easter. Choose life. "He is risen !  He is risen indeed !"