Welcome to the beauty and promise of Easter

Welcome to Easter! This is the highlight celebration for those of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ.

Last week I visited the campus Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. Being on campus, I was reminded how much the world has changed in the 20 years since I graduated. I left there with my master’s degree in the spring of 1997, believing I could change the world as I headed to Sandpoint, Idaho. I have not been as successful at the world changing as I hoped. Indeed, the world has become a very different place in the past 20 years.

I walked into the seminary chapel. for the first a time in 20 years. It looked exactly the same. I could almost hear the old professor playing the pipe organ and a few hundred seminarians singing the old hymn “And Can It Be” in ways that filled the whole sanctuary. There was a quiet Spirit that settled upon me as I sat to reflect. Twenty years later, was I making the difference I had hoped?

Then it hit me. A surprise encounter with God.

This chapel wasn’t the only thing that hadn’t changed in 20 years. The same God that called me to be His creative and redemptive agent in the world is the same God who still gives me the invitation today. The God who sent me out of that place 20 years ago and promised He would never leave me nor forsake me has kept His promises. In fact, He has kept them in ways far deeper than I could have ever predicted. The road has been different than I imagined, but His love remains the same.

I was blessed to have that reminder of God’s grace to me. Sometimes in the craziness of life we need those reminders of God’s faithfulness and His love. I pray Easter is one of those times for you. That in all the weightiness of life you might have a surprise encounter with God and be reminded of His call and grace in your life. May this Easter be a fresh reminder that God’s love for you has never changed!

As I sat there on that same old hard pew, a smile broke out over my face. I heard the voices of my friends who sat around me over 20 years ago singing that song at the top of their lungs.

So I stood, and with the chapel empty, sang out at the top of my voice:

1. “Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;

Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray—

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

2 Refrain:

Amazing love! How can it be,

That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”

I once again had encountered the Christ of Easter. I pray that this Easter you have the same fresh encounter. Come to church this weekend and be reminded that Easter is about finding your purpose in life, connecting with the God who wants to walk in this life with you, and experiencing a life filled with hope. Let God change your world!