Happy Post Easter

What a lovely lazy Easter weekend our family shared.  I just realized this morning that I took no pictures.  The boys in their matching shirts, the bike helmet Easter baskets, the hiding of eggs, the nice breakfast that David made, nope not one picture.  I suppose I can do some reenacting of matching shirts, or a cozy breakfast, really who would know right?

We thought that we would wait it out and go to the 5pm service at our church. Over the weekend our church held 7 services and we thought this would be the least likely service to be met with a big crowd. We do not have any family in town, so no dinner to run too and I am in a season of not cooking on Easter, and the 5pm promised a little dinner afterward, so David and I chose this service.

Boy were we wrong.  The parking lots was already full, and we got there early and still ended up in the back row of the overflow seating watching the service from a big screen.  Luis Palau came and spoke an incredible Easter message.  One that stays and lingers in your heart for days to come. The music was great, the message better and one brief germ-a-phoebe moment was when we were asked to join hands across the isle. Normally I do no cringe, but when the young man took my hand, the heat from his hand was enough to make me start praying that I not get sick. I asked him afterward if he was running a fever. Dear Lord always a mother.  He smiled and said no, but that he always runs warm.

It took us a while to get out of the parking lot. David and I discussed the whole coordination of getting so many cars out of the lot and the parking attendants having to police the situation. They held up a "STOP" and a car sped right through. We could not hear the conversation, but we could see the hands waving and the energy exchanged.  It is their job to keep traffic moving and everyone safe, and there could have been some kind of collision, but all was well and traffic continued.

It came to me that I have come up with a brilliant idea for our parking situation.  Solid Rock build a fifteen story parking garage.  Then you have coffee servers on skates filling orders as we inch into parking. Then when parked we can just walk right in. This would then allow a smoother transition from one service to the next.  David laughed and did not think it would go over, however I would put the fist dollar in.  

We did make it home, boys off to bed, somewhat recovered from the days sugar high. Actually it was the fastest all three were sleeping in a long time.  Such a wonderful day with family. David and I watched the Lakers lose and as we both went up to bed, there was peace in our home.  A fine day of just being together.

God is so good.  An Easter that may not have the family pictures to remember by, but a loving God who sent his son Jesus to die. I don't need pictures to remember this event in history.  Happy post Easter. Love, elizabeth

How Will Your Heart Be Changed?

Last night I attended a Good Friday service.  I know the story, I know the pain and suffering Jesus faced as he took on the sins of the world, as he was in that moment on the cross separated from His Father calling out "why have your forsaken me" and God knowing this is what needed to be done to say man from himself.

The pastor set the tone for the evening. Stating that this is going to be a different service.  It was not going to be fun, joyful, the music not the same. He even asked that people not leave, as I am sure what was to come might offend.  And then the words went up on the screen. Words that were not going to be read out loud, but each person was to have their own alone time, pondering this moment in history. Alone. Jesus was alone. Even though I sat inches away from Emily I asked myself this one question. How can I be changed this evening? Changed with a story I know so well.

The music played, minor after minor.  Blaring in a way as if to be standing on the side watching Jesus beaten, spit upon, and carrying that cross up the hill.  "When the Shepard is down, the sheep scatter."  Our Lord Jesus, the Shepard of our soul beaten down, and his disciples scattered.  The music continued.  I sat quietly asking God to show me what my heart needed to know that was more, that would deepen my understanding, that would change my heart.

I had to close my eyes and listen to the music.  And then the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart.  Scattered Elizabeth.  You get scattered to easily.  I felt in that moment like the little lamb that runs off the trail and how my choices to step away from the Shepard puts me into a frenzied scatter.  Even in the smallest ways.  Do I say and do things that do not bring honor to Jesus.  It's those things that beat Him down, and again that little lamb named Elizabeth who stumbles out of sight of the Shepard scattered and left to her own.

It is not enough for me to just see the story as a man who walked a long painful walk to a cross for me. I have to take this event in history and be reminded daily, when Easter has come and gone, just what it means every day of walking with Jesus.  I am scattered about because of my turning away from Him. Yes, on Easter He had to be separated from His father.  Does the sin in my heart separate me, for a day, a season, or do I pick up that cross and carry it too.

At the end of the service a young man got up to sing the last song. I realized that I had been so deeply praying I forgot to get up and take communion.  When the song was over he said that one of the things  he had hoped for  tonight " is that your heart would be changed."

My heart was changed, a new understanding, a new accountability of my heart, a word that has me pondering my walk with Jesus, a new understanding of being separated and alone when I turn my back on the Shepard, a scattered lamb who needs not be stepping off the trail.  Easter is about the his death and resurrection. It's about my sin, his act of taking it all, and me that little lamb following him.  

May the reminder of Jesus' death on the cross and resurrection change your heart today.
Happy Easter!