He is Risen! Now what?

Resurrection Sunday. It’s probably the most significant holiday in the Christian faith. After 3 days, Jesus emerged from the tomb with the ultimate victory over sin, hell and the grave. A victory that is ours.

Christians walk out of church on Easter Sunday feeling renewed, excited, hopeful. Maybe even a little more committed to making a relationship with a risen Jesus a higher priority. But then Sunday ends.

It seems that by Monday morning, for many of us, the real world creeps back in with that Monday morning alarm and we go back to our life. Maybe we woke up in time to read our Bible. Maybe we turned on worship music instead of our normal morning news or radio show. Maybe we prayed with our spouse or kids before everyone was out the door. But did we stick with it on Tuesday?

Here’s the thing. He’s still risen. That tomb is still empty. But sometimes without the fanfare of Easter we can let life allow us to forget that we live in the resurrection every day. When the day is great and all goes well, He’s still risen. When nothing goes our way and it seems that the grave has won, He’s still risen.

As someone who may as well have been born in the church pew, I’m so guilty of feeling ALL OF THE FEELINGS on Easter. Then starting my week like I didn’t just have a beautiful reminder of what Jesus did for me. This week since Easter, I’ve thought a lot about how different my every day would be if I approached it like the day has already been won. Because it has. Even the bad days, the hard days, the fall apart days. They’ve been won. The resurrection has promised that. That problem that seems to have no solution. That diagnosis that seems insurmountable. That dream that seems so deferred. Those hurdles that seem to slow the journey down while working towards a goal. All of is has been won by the resurrection.

Keeping that perspective doesn’t suddenly make the hard become easy. It doesn’t remove the pain life can bring. But it can bring peace in the midst of a storm. It can bring that little bit of added strength to face the next day. And it can bring a deeper joy when we see the battle won.

So, He is risen! Now what? Now I’ll work to see my day through the perspective of the resurrection each day. I won’t do it perfectly. I’ll have days where I forget that I’m already living from the position of victory. But hopefully, as I try to be intentional about focusing my perspective towards the empty tomb, those days will be fewer and further between. Because He is risen indeed.