Giving something up is a traditional practice of Lent to help us prepare for Easter, but often we do not venture past giving up something like chocolate or wine. This year God invited us to give up something more significant – our attitudes and actions that keep us from loving God and one another. As we gave up hubris for humility, greed for gratefulness, and religiosity for real faith, we made room for something better, more impactful… God’s triumphant love in Jesus Christ. Now as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord… let’s give it up for Easter!
Giving up Dying for Rising
After 40 days of “giving things up” for Lent, today we are asked to give up just one more thing, one more attitude. Easter beckons us to give up dying for rising. That seems an easy request, and yet, how often do we, like the women at the tomb, “look for the living among the dead” or choose those things that do not offer us true life? How often do we, like the apostles, wonder if this story isn’t just “an idle tale” or find death easier to believe than new life? This Easter we are invited to believe the impossible, unnatural truth God’s triumphant love through Jesus’ resurrection has conquered death itself. So, let’s give up dying for rising… today and always!
image: Sunrise by Bonnyachoat. Copyright © Getty Images Plus via Getty Images. Used by permission.