Resurrection Day — Who I am

Resurrection Day – Who I Am (1,126)

April 24th, 2011

House cleaning is done.

One of the most difficult things to understand about resurrection is that it demands death and a burial. I have reached the point in my life where I am glad for some old, bad habits to die. I get a certain amount of glee from burying them, with the hope that what resurrects will actually have new—and better—life.

Here’s what I learned from my house cleaning:

What I feel is that emotionally, I want to be healthy, wealthy and wise.

To be healthy I have to be honest with myself and experiment with at least one other person, sharing that candor with the aspiration of living as transparently as possible.

I know the only way to emotionally be wealthy is to challenge the “normal” parts of our society which have been proven to be ineffective, knowing that when the change comes I will already be there, waiting for the crowd to show up.

And the only way to be wise is to question everything that doesn’t have the Golden Rule in it; anything that leaves people out of life is absent of God.

And speaking of God—that leads to what I believe.

I believe that His kingdom should come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I have no sense of the glory of eternity if I can’t find some sweetness in the present.

What I believe about my family is that I should love my neighbor as myself. I do not diminish my affection for my immediate off-spring by extending gentleness and mercy to the family of man. I just want to make my family bigger, not smaller.

And the best way to love my country—America—is to tell this great nation that “you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” When we stop seeking the truth and try to take short cuts or believe we have some manifest destiny simply because we’re Americans, we just naturally begin to lose some of our freedoms.

With that belief system in line, I am ready to think. And the first thing I will remove from my thinking is the notion that life is hard. Every time I hear somebody say it I am going to laugh inside and start thinking about what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report and anything worthy of praise. I think that will probably keep me busy enough.

My mind fully renewed with all of that good stuff, I am ready to go out and do something. I’m also ready to consider. After all, if there is anything that can benefit others, I don’t really need to debate it. I’m just going to do it. And the reason I can be confident about that is that I have taken the time to consider how nature and the animal kingdoms work, and even how the lily grows. God is never hidden from us. He is just one miracle of nature away.

So who am I on this resurrection morning?

I am a person who refuses to hide his feelings, who believes that God is all around us and not just in the Bible or in heaven;, that refuses to think life is hard, who does what will benefit others without giving it a second thought, and considers how God’s creation works in honoring me—and God’s kingdom.

That’s my house cleaning, leading to my resurrection—because someday we all will die and be buried for real and the only thing that will ever come out of our grave site is our names. When our names are mentioned, what emotions, beliefs, thinking and actions will be brought to remembrance in those left behind?

That is our resurrection.

Choose wisely.