Christmas & Easter Christians

Today we celebrated Easter. That day when Jesus raised from death and showed us mere humans that we have the ability to life forever. As Richard is so fond of saying, "we have a miniscule amount of time on this earth when compared to all of infinity we have after this life. What wouldn't I do to get into heaven?" Today is what made that happen, when Jesus showed us that if we believe in Him, we'll get to spend forever with Him.

This Easter was just like all the High holy days (though mainly Christmas and Easter) when people come from everywhere to go to church. Heck, one family came from Florida! Well, really they were visiting and visited us because Rob used to be the pastor at their church in Florida. But hey, doesn't it sound good to say someone came from Florida to visit our church? The church was packed at the 9:30 and 11:00 services. It's really great to see so many people come out to worship God.

All of this is to lead into my own feelings about this Easter (and Christmas actually). For some reason I have jut not been in the spirit. This Christmas it was so busy running up to it, and the services were so busy, I didn't really feel that I had time to relax. I didn't have time to thank God for all the people in my life whom I've been blessed to spend time with, as I do each year.

I spoke to someone today, mentioning I just wasn't in the spirit. He had the good observation that my role has changed. It is now a time for me to serve God and hear some of his words when I can which is different from time to reflect with God and hear what he has to say about my life. So, instead of an attendee, I'm now a servant.

This leads to a few things. Sunday mornings tend to feel very hectic, setting up and running slides at the service, running youth group at night, plus the other days a week for church meetings. Just makes for a lot of time at church, and so church feels like a busy place. This can lead to what seems like a devaluation the "specialness" of it all.

So, how do we keep it special? One way is to use prayer outside of church. I pray a lot, before meals, when I have a question on something, or when I begin to get stressed. It is my time to relax and have a personal conversation with God.

Another way is to look at the advantages which come from this service. One thing I come back to more than anything is the friendships I've formed which I can't see ever breaking. Those with adults (one family in our church are Rachel's God family) and those with the youth. I get online and chat over IM a lot, then have phone calls with adults at different times. But the best is to walk into church for an event or a Sunday morning and have a room of people light up and welcome me. This must be what Norm feltwhen he walked into Cheers and everyone said "NORM" (if you're roo oung to remember cheers, I feel sorry for you missing such a great show).

Ultimately I know I'm doing God's work. He's using me to make this world a better place.

So, to keep things fresh mens making my own time with God, taking as much as I can from the Sunday service, and realizing the great advantages I come from my service. So, if it means losing the spirit every now and then, I'll take it.

How do you keep the Sunday and holiday services fresh and special?

Peace.

posted by Tom at 7:38 PM