The fourth Thursday of Eastertide

Good morning!

It is still the Easter season. We ostensibly are still celebrating the reality and the wonder of the resurrection every day. Perhaps "celebrating" and "reality" should be set apart by quotation marks, because if there's celebrating there isn't much 'oomph' in it, and because the 'reality' of Jesus' risen presence doesn't seem real, or doesn't seem like much of an antidote to what ails me, ails us.

That was not a particularly inspiring first paragraph, you might be saying. Fair enough. But it rings true today for me. It's not the whole truth of today or my life, but it's the part that comes to mind as I sit down to write today.

Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and the life. I take that to mean in part that whatever is true belongs to, belongs in living with Jesus as we walk in his way. I take Jesus being the truth to mean that He invites us to bring the truth of ourselves to the truth of who He is, and in doing so we are entwining our lives with his, and He breathes his life into the truth, the reality of our experiences.

Jesus also said that He is the resurrection and the life. I'd like to point out that He said that to Lazarus' sister while Lazarus was still thoroughly un-resurrected.

We are invited to bring ourselves and whatever is true about ourselves, however inconvenient and chagrin-inducing and not-compatible-with-walking-with-Jesus, to Jesus as we walk with him along his way. Even though.

Even though.

Even though.

Psalm 23

the Lord is my shepherd ...

even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death

Even though.  ...


I wrote all of that, probably unnecessarily, as an intro to this link to a video. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=doh379tdawQ

Please, please watch it.  Even though you might not want to.

Blessings to you on this Thursday. In Easter. Even though.

Charlie