Happiest of Easters to you!

Okay, so the official flower of Easter is an Easter Lily (huh.  wonder how that happened.) but who doesn't like daffodils?  That's what I thought.  Of course, that's not what Easter is about.  As my mom and I echo to one another at Easter time, "The Lord is risen!"

"The Lord is risen indeed."

Amen!

Humble Pie

I read an interesting quip this morning. It effectively goes as follows: We should not be humbled by pondering our sins and failures, but rather by the work of the cross and Christ's sacrifice for us.

Tru dat.

I tend to pause, all too often, on my own failures. I've failed more than I'll ever let on (I'm that type of person, sorry), but the fact of the matter is, that's just another way of being self-centered. It's not furthering my relationship with the Lord to think back to the fact that my fleshly self sins way too often. It's not bringing Him glory. It's not doing anything productive, in fact.

So instead I should look more to the cross, and beyond, to the completed work of my risen Saviour. Through His death and resurrection I have been made whole, I have been redeemed, and I have been given a new life. There's no sense looking back through my rear-view mirror, so to speak, and dwell on that old life. But rather look forward through the large windshield in front of me and face my every tomorrow knowing that I come to my knees in gratitude and humility only because His work shines more greatly than my frailty ever will.

I am awed, and humbled, by the Life He lived. And Gave. For me.

Lent

So, I think Lent is crazy. If you wanted to give something up to one-up your flesh or whatever (still not sure I understand Lent, truth be told) then you should do it at any time. Like I decided caffeine was bad for me, and stopped taking it. Done and done. My sister gave up gluten for Lent last year, my best friend went off Chipotle, and last year I gave up nothing. This year, for some reason, I got sucked into the whole Lenten celebration (oops, Lent is supposed to be sad), and have given up... cheese.

Why cheese? Well, as I was explaining to someone the other day, I don't have a lot of vices to speak of. I don't spend a lot of money using a bank card of any sort (someone suggested that I use only cash during Lent). I don't drink or smoke, I don't drink coffee or any such habitual drink (no caffeine, remember?). I can't give up "worldly music" because they play it at work, and I don't think I could convince them to not turn on the radio for the next month and a half. If I didn't hold a job, it would make sense for me to not read fiction during Lent, but truth be told, I rarely get time to read these days, so it wouldn't feel like I was actually giving something up. Ditto movies, I don't even have time to watch them, nor the inclination, nor the ability. So that left me with... cheese.

But again, why cheese? Well, in my family, cheese is a big deal. Not that we gather round and give thanks to the brilliant men who first figured out how to make cheese delicious, but rather that we eat it a lot. Eggs, casseroles, spaghetti, macaroni, quesadillas, pretty much everything we make in a jiffy has cheese involved. Meals without cheese take more time, because they require actual planning involving flavour not derived from cheese.

So fare thee well, cheese, I shall devour thee once again come Easter.

Oh, the best part of Lent this year? My two best friends are giving up pop and going out to eat, respectively. I think we'll all be a little worse for the wear by the time it's all over. Huzzah to strength in numbers!

Give Thanks!

I just love Thanksgiving! If I had to choose just one holiday to celebrate for a whole year, Thanksgiving would be my top choice--even over Guy Fawkes Day! It's not because I love the food (turkey, blegh), but because it's so... cozy! In a way that no other holiday is, Thanksgiving is without pretensions, I feel. Sure, it's a super shopping signal--but that's just because Christmas is around the corner. Black Friday is more about Christmas than Thanksgiving, in my opinion.

Thanksgiving is what it is: about giving thanks. There's no crazy gimmick, no bunny or fat dude or cupid, there's just family and turkey. How much better could it get? (Well, minus the turkey it could be better, but this isn't the time for me to be worrying about such things.)

Plus, I've been super encouraged recently about how awesome the assurance of Heaven is. Here's the deal--no matter how difficult our times on earth may be, no matter how much we don't feel like giving thanks, we can still rejoice, because it all ends in GLORY! Doesn't that just make every day a million times better?

So this year, if you're not feeling thankful for anything at all, just remember, no matter what trials we may experience, it'll all be worth it in HEAVEN! Even so come!