Easter Afterthought

The Easter celebration is passed and what remains for many is just some half eaten candy, wilting flowers, or the odd pastel decorations associated with the holiday. For a believer, however, there is the opportunity to continue to reflect on the significance of this Resurrection Celebration. Jesus is risen and active in this world. We are to be different too because of this. The Apostle Paul puts it this way:
4 Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--
7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
(Rom 6:4-13 NIV)

I am to be "alive to God in Christ Jesus." What vital signs am I displaying that indicate that I am alive? Does my heart beat with excitement about the things that get Christ's heart pumping? Do my eyes see people like Christ does and move me toward a compassionate response? Do my hands reach out to touch the people Christ would touch? Do my feet carry me to places where the Good News needs to be shared? Do my my passions reflect Christ's so that I seek only to do the Father's will and not my own? When these things begin to happen it indicates I have signs of new life.

Lord, let me remember Easter every day as I recall that I too have been raised to live a new life to the glory of God.