Realist and the Resurrection

This year I turn 40 and as the years go by, I continue to learn more about myself and what makes me tick. It's a fresh reminder of my need to continually be submitting my life unto Christ and seeing myself as He sees me.

One of the things I know about myself is that I am a realist. I tend to see the world in which I live through a very realistic lens. Like all of our tendencies, they can have positives and negatives to them. The negative is that I can get lost in the details of reality and forget to dream. One of the positives is that I don't seek to sweep hard realities under the carpet and live in a fantasy land where things are always good.

As Easter quickly approaches, I thought about this character trait in relationship to the resurrection and saw both the positive and the negative that can come from it. The positive is that I firmly believe and hold to the resurrection of Jesus Christ as historical fact/reality and that won't soon change. It requires an element of faith but the historical proof is also overwhelming and leads me to seek to live in the confidence and power of a risen Savior.

The negative is that I can sometimes get lost in the details of arguing and building my argument for the resurrection of Jesus that I lose sight of the power of it. In the name, person, work and resurrection of Jesus Christ there is life, power and the ability to dream big dreams in Him and for Him. If I am not careful, Easter can become another Sunday where I put in my religious duty and then check it off until the next major holiday comes the churches way.

This Easter season I am praying that I not only celebrate and acknowledge by faith my belief in the resurrection as a real historical fact (which many of us do during Easter services) but also experience the fullness of Christ and the resurrection power in my real life. That would be the best of both worlds for this realist.