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“Be still, and know that I am God.” – Psalms 46:10

When I was first asked about writing on my experience with the pandemic, I immediately knew I had a story to tell. A sense of awakening in two very different ways.

The first awakening for me had to do with death. As the media coverage of the pandemic grew, it became apparent that people were afraid. Not just those that were on the news but people at work and throughout our community. There was a real fear of the virus. Although I don’t intend to downplay the seriousness of the virus, it was and is not something I personally fear. As someone nearing 60, I have experienced death throughout my entire life, whether it be friends, co workers, grandparents and most recently my precious dad. The deaths had occurred from a wide variety of illnesses and accidents, from heart attacks, cancer, car wrecks or just old age. Death, no matter the cause, is a fact of life.

I recently stumbled across a quote from RR Reno (a catholic theologian who I don’t follow, but just happened upon this quote).

“Satan rules a kingdom in which the ultimate power of death is announced morning, noon and night. But Satan cannot rule directly. God alone has the power of life and death, and thus Satan can only rule indirectly. He must rely on our fear of death”

This quote caused me to think deeply about my thoughts on death and why there seemed to be so much fear in our society. I have always said none of us are getting out of this place alive and death is just the beginning for those of us who place our trust in Christ. The Apostle Paul says to live is Christ and to die is gain, for Paul knew he would be in the presence of his Savior. Death really means nothing if we know eternity is waiting.

The challenge in my thinking came from the fear I saw in others and to realize the problem with that fear, is that perhaps they did not have my hope. No pride in that statement, but a revelation that as Christians we obviously have a lot of work to do in our own back yard. This is our time to help others understand.

The second awakening for me, comes with the peace and comfort I am finding in the great slow down. I am saddened by the lives that have been lost and as a financial person, am greatly troubled by the economic destruction. They are both tragic in their own way. However, the past four weeks of working from home, have been some of the richest and happiest of my entire life. There is no sad story here. Each day has given me back almost 2 hours of my life. No traffic, no more 30 mile commute, and no sitting at an uncomfortable desk. This time has allowed me to spend more time reading God’s word, in prayer, out in the mountains on trails and visiting with family. Our home in the mountains surrounded by God’s creation, is a revelation compared to working at my office in town. As I visit my favorite trailheads now, I often find numerous other cars in the parking lot. Prior to the pandemic, my car was often the only one at the trailhead. The roads around my neighborhood are now frequented by neighbors walking with their children or dogs. The pace of everyone around me has slowed down. I have spent quality time with my kids, my wife and my mom, presenting rich blessings in my life and those around me.

Ric Rodeheaver, an elder at Christ Community Church in Laguna Hills, CA, put it this way. “Maybe it takes a global pandemic to make us realize we’ve made the Christian life more busy than it needs to be.”

Although I long for a sense of normal for those who have been impacted, either through sickness or loss of income, for many of us, this time has been one of reflection on the importance of a relationship with Christ and the quiet time that goes along with that. God isn’t keeping records of how busy we are, but I believe is overjoyed with our refocus on our relationship with him, and our refocus on values and priorities that glorify him. I am praying that this becomes my new normal.

Did you wake up in a funk on Easter Sunday?

I did.

I’m tired.

I’m tired of the grief and sadness and worry and uncertainty that a global pandemic has brought.  I’m tired of watching the case numbers and death toll rise.  I’m tired of seeing the empty New York streets and weary, war-torn medical professionals.  I’m tired of missing my family and friends.  I’m tired of ending each night in tears, thinking of those who are lying in hospital beds without their loved ones….and those whose loved ones never came home to their own beds.

I can’t pretend that Easter in Quarantine is a fun, meme-worthy event.  Sunday morning, I simply felt like a day that should look bright and hopeful was covered in a thick, heavy cloud.

Interestingly, God caught my attention through something very simple… an egg hunt.

My wonderful in-laws were kind enough to hide a few dozen eggs outdoors for the kids to run around and find.  I helped to hide a few, then watched as they came out to start looking.  My kids are pretty big…7, 9, and 12, but they still had an absolute blast.  While watching them run and squeal, I came to a conclusion: There’s something about finding things that have been hidden specifically for the purpose of being found that is thrilling.  The eggs were completely empty.  They boys simply enjoyed the thrill of the hunt.  We hid the eggs twice for them to find, then they hid the eggs for us adults.  I think they may have had even more fun watching us find the eggs they hid than they did hunting!  They enjoyed giving us hints along the way and cheered every time we spotted one.

While we hunted, I was reminded of a word of encouragement I received through Max Lucado’s Bible study entitled, Unshakable Hope.  In one chapter, Max quotes this verse:

“For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime; Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning.” - Psalm 30:5

Max encourages the reader to go hunting for joy…to look expectantly for it…even in the midst of difficulty and sorrow.

I had read this a few weeks ago and had been so encouraged by the idea of hunting of joy.  What happened?

I forgot I was on the hunt.  I sat down in the darkness and gave up looking.  All the while, God had hidden “eggs” of joy all around me:

• Two substitute teachers whose income suddenly evaporated were sustained until they could get government help by the wonderful people at MCC.
• A gospel conversation concerning God’s approval and acceptance was had because of a single mom’s tough situation and MCC’s willingness to give
• Several MCC families pulled together to help provide clothing, food, and personal items for a family in crisis through a connection with Barrett House.
• Anyone connected to an MCC member on Facebook is seeing daily encouragement from scripture through MCC’s Daily Devotionals.

This list could certainly go on.  None of these things would be happening if a global pandemic was not happening.

I won’t ignore the grief, fear, and loss this crisis is creating.  However, there is ample evidence that God has a good plan and good purposes to provide for people, draw them to Himself, and show Himself present.

There is joy to be found.  Let’s go out and hunt it down.

Faithful Christians and equally zealous nonbelievers can agree on the following statement:  If Jesus of Nazareth didn’t rise from the dead, then the entire Christian faith is worthless.  The Apostle Paul agreed when we wrote “if Christ hasn’t been raised then our faith is in vain….  and we of all people, are most to be pitied” (1Cor 15).  The veracity of our faith boils down to a single event that either happened or didn’t – a single event that is open to the tools of historical investigation.  If we can encourage skeptics to overcome their biases and to investigate this event for themselves, many of them will awaken to the plausibility of the historic Christian position.  This alone won’t save anyone – but it illustrates one of the ways that apologetics is an important part of evangelism in the modern (and postmodern) world.

As a graduate student studying Physics in an environment overtly hostile to Christianity, God took me down my own path of discovering the bankruptcy of default skeptical positions assumed in that culture.  Once I realized that theists and non-theists alike believed in “miracles” (what’s a bigger miracle than the Universe coming into existence out of nothing?) it gradually became clearer to me that God existed, and could therefore intervene if, when, and how, He wanted.  Yet, before experimenting with prayer and ultimately placing my faith in the God of the Bible, I had to become convinced of the historical plausibility of the resurrection myself.

Do you know what I found?  A remarkably high number of even non-Christian professional historians agree on dozens of historical facts that can be arranged into three broad categories: 

1) The discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb by a group of his women followers. 

2) The postmortem appearances to several individuals and groups. 

3) The origin of the disciples’ belief in Jesus’ resurrection. 

The task of the historian is then to compare all the competing hypotheses according to certain criteria for the best explanation (see graphic inset below).

Even the most skeptical non-Christian scholars acknowledge that the earliest Christian hypothesis proclaimed by Jesus’ disciples, skeptics like James, and persecutors like Paul was that “God raised Jesus from the dead”.  This fact can be established using only Paul’s universally accepted letters, one of which contains the most primitive Christian creed proclaiming the resurrection (1 Cor 15:3-5), which is dated to within a couple of years and possibly even months of the crucifixion (see graphic timeline above).  This allows no time for legendary development or corrupted oral tradition assumed by alternative hypotheses.  The resurrection hypothesis benefits from several early and independently attested eyewitness accounts supported by many biblical and extra-biblical sources that overshadow every alternative hypothesis (various “conspiracy theories”, the “apparent death” or “mythological” explanation, the “Hallucination hypothesis”, and combinations of these).

The resurrection hypothesis not only holds its own under rigorous historical analysis – it appears to be the best explanation of the established facts*.   It’s a remarkable fact that alternative hypotheses have less traction today than they did 50 years ago among academic scholars in the relevant fields.   When put into the context of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, the resurrection hypothesis not only fits the historical data the best, it vindicates Jesus’ claims about Himself, and gives us our only hope.  For God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead” –  Paul at the Aereopagus in Athens (Acts 17:31).

*for rigorous analysis of available historical data see any number of books, publications, and debates by Dr. Gary Habermas, Dr. Mike Licona, Dr. William Lane Craig, Dr. N.T. Wright among others.  

When someone asks, “What does Easter mean to you?” do you have a standard, off the shelf, 15 second ‘church’ response that you use? I know I do and while the answer is usually technically correct in giving a definition, I’ve realized that kind of response falls short of conveying what Easter means deep down inside me.

You see for me, Easter means God has always had a plan. All the way back in Genesis God started revealing His plan to redeem mankind. He knew human beings were going to be a goofy, messed up species and yet He made us anyway! He made us in His image, knowing that by giving us free choice, we would sin and destroy our relationship with Him. 

Easter also means God will go to any lengths to bring his plan about. Mankind’s sin presented God with a dilemma only He could solve. God’s love for us requires that we be saved. His holiness requires our reconciliation; that we be made righteous before Him. His justice requires that we receive the punishment we deserve for our sin which is death and separation from our God. But God’s plan, the incarnation of the Son, Jesus Christ, his death on the cross as the perfect sacrificial atonement for all our sins was and is the greatest expression of love God could give. This was the only way to satisfy His perfect justice and perfect holiness. 

Easter means God’s plan worked. The resurrection is God’s assurance that the sacrifice Jesus made paid the debt of sin in full. This is why it is so important for us to celebrate Easter – it is proof positive that we have been reconciled and our relationship with God is restored.

Easter means hope for me. It’s one thing to think about Jesus being the savior of the world; giving his life for our collective sins. That’s big! It’s so enormous that I can see it being worthy of God. It’s another matter altogether to think that He would die for my sins alone. I still get chills when I remember the first time I heard that Jesus’ love for me is so great that he would have died for my sins alone.

You see, God had a plan for mankind from the very beginning; and He has a plan for me and a plan for you. God is willing to go to any length, even death on a cross, to bring about His plan for mankind, and He will go to any length to bring about His plan for me and for you. God’s plan to redeem mankind worked, and so will His plans to redeem and transform me and you. Easter means hope – the kind of hope that I long for, that I’m certain will come about one day – hope of spending eternity with the God I love and who loves me more than I can ever comprehend.

In His omniscience our God knew that our celebration of Easter would look different this year. There may be fear, frustration and a gamut of high emotion all around us, but we can stand firm on the promises of our God in our Lord and Savior. The way we celebrate may be different this year, but the real meaning of Easter has not changed.

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.” Edward Mote

What does Easter mean to you? There won’t be a better time to share the message of Easter than right now.

God has been asking me to believe that He is enough for me for a long while. If you know me, you know I am stubborn! And so, today’s present state of our world is one more opportunity for me to trust and believe.

Isolation is no stranger in our home. Celiac disease has isolated us in ways we never imaged given our expectations of a “normal” life; as many chronic illnesses will do. The present restrictions imposed on us as individuals, for the greater good, are not a chosen or expected normal for most people.

Having expectations that allow us to think we are in control and allow us selfishness, are not Biblical. The only expectations we can count on are the expectations in God’s promises in His Word. He promises many times that He will not leave us, He lives within us, we are His children, His Church! As Christians we are never truly separated completely from others. God is always with us. We have the privilege of direct communication with our God through the blood of Christ. I think our fear and feelings of isolation are rooted in our sin natures and a time between birth and accepting Christ as Lord and Savior when we could not be in the presence of God but had an immense longing for His love. That separation being the worst and loneliest isolation possible.

I wonder, Christ being totally God and man, when on the cross and crying out, “Father, why have you forsaken me”, was that the moment He understood that profound isolation magnified by the sins of us all? Christ willingly bore that isolating, separating sin.

He knows how it feels and is with me as I deal with my isolation and is the model for me to bear my isolation in this world.

I thank Him for a chance to be more like Him.

I thank Him for the lessons in learning to believe He is totally, completely, without fail, by His promises enough for me.

This lesson I can only learn through and with His love for me. The best way I have found to push away my disbelief, fears and feelings, is to stay in His word, sometimes minute by minute. To communicate with Him all day long with words, songs and prayers; and to serve others as Christ served me by His death on the cross.

In our isolation from other humans besides our immediate family members there are many ways to serve one another. I challenge you to serve in ways you’ve never served before or to serve in a greater capacity than ever before.

And I pray that you believe God is enough!