“O God, you enlightened this most holy night with the glory of the Lord’s resurrection. Preserve the spirit of adoption which you have given to all your people, so that renewed in body and soul, we may serve you in all purity; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.”

As much as I have been learning about the season of Lent leading up to Easter and the holy week including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, I haven’t really found out much about Holy Saturday, also referred to as Easter Eve. No one really seems to commemorate the day.

Maybe it’s because nothing really happened. It’s the day between the Good Friday of Jesus laying down His life and the Easter Sunday of Jesus being raised up from the dead. I know there’s a passage in 1 Peter 3:19 about Jesus preaching to the spirits in prison. Some believe that Jesus descended into hell and proclaimed His victory to the spirits there. Some believe it was Jesus preaching through Noah to those before the flood came. I’m not sure what I believe.

I do imagine that feeling of hopelessness the disciples must have felt on that Saturday. All their hopes seem to have died on the cross with Jesus. They couldn’t quite grasp what He was talking about when He said He must be handed over and lifted up and killed to rise again. They had seen their Rabbi whom they had followed and been with every single day for three years die. They had no where to go.

But thankfully, the story doesn’t end with Saturday. The story doesn’t end with the sealed tomb and sorrowful hearts and sad faces. I heard that because of Easter Sunday, the worst thing is never the last thing. Because of Easter Sunday, your story will not end with ashes, to paraphrase Elisabeth Elliott.

It may be Friday (or in this case Holy Saturday), but Sunday’s comin’!

Does it strike anyone else as odd that today of all days is referred to as Good Friday? This is the day when they took Jesus, beat Him, tortured Him, nailed Him to a piece of wood, and murdered Him in the guise of crucifixion. In terms of how most people define good, this was anything but a good Friday.

But in God’s economy, this was the fulfillment of all the prophecies about a Messiah and Suffering Servant who by his stripes and suffering would heal us and make us whole. By the worst moment of suffering ever endured by anyone in history, Jesus made a way for us to be right with God.

I love the definition of sin as me trying to put myself in God’s place, while salvation is God putting Himself in my place. The difference is that sin fails to dethrone God but salvation succeeds because God never tried to do anything. He just did it.

Good Friday is good because God so loved the world that He gave Jesus, so that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have eternal life. Good Friday is good because He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Good Friday is good because the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

That means that even my worst day can turn to good if God is in it. My worst case scenario can be redeemed for God’s purposes and serve God’s glory instead of my pain and my shame. Easter means that the worst thing is never the last thing (according to Frederick Buechner). Easter Sunday makes Good Friday good and can make any day of mine good, too.

One of my new favorite traditions is observing Maundy Thursday. It’s only recently that I even know what Maundy Thursday is or what it means. Apparently, Maundy comes from the Latin word for command. As best as I can understand, Maundy Thursday is a reflection on the last Lord’s Supper before the arrest, trial, and crucifixion on Good Friday.

The service is typically a come and go service. It’s subdued and reflective. There’s usually a minimal amount of music and lighting with the majority of the focus on the cross looming in the foreground, a kind of foreshadowing of what’s to come.

It’s hard to see the bread and the wine (or the juice if you’re Baptist), and not see the body broken and the blood spilled out. Jesus was preparing His disciples for the next 24 hours, although they didn’t grasp His meaning until after the fact, after the cross and the grave and the resurrection.

Easter is a celebration. Maundy Thursday is a reflection, not only of what Jesus did but of what that means for us as followers still caught in the struggle of sin in the midst of a sinful world. Easter is not possible without Maundy Thursday and Good Friday and the Saturday in between.

May we prepare our hearts even now to truly receive the joy of the coming Easter.

“Be strong enough to admit your weaknesses. Be brave enough to show your fear. Be honest enough to confess the sham you’ve lived and all the masks you’ve been wearing. Love people as they are, not as you hope they will be. Let the love of Christ fill you and spill out into your world. Because His love alone can heal and make whole and set you free. His love alone can transform you into something like Himself” (Me, circa 2011).

I’m 98% certain I wrote those words, but I have no memory of the context of what I was thinking or feeling. I was definitely more in my head back then and a lot more fearful of what other people thought of me (or more accurately, what I thought other people thought of me). I probably scuttled a few relationships out of projecting my own self-rejection onto other people, but there were a few who were brave enough to look at me and see the diamond beneath all the coal.

I believe when someone is looking at you to see whether your Christ is real or not, what they want isn’t perfection but authenticity. They want real not religious. They need to know that someone like them who has messed up like them can find a new hope and a new direction. People need to know that they matter, that they are enough, that they can love and be loved.

Unfortunately, most look in all the wrong places, looking to broken cisterns for living water. Sometimes those people are the ones who have already found the true fountain, but they go back to busted wells because that’s what they know.

Honesty with yourself and God brings healing. Honesty with others brings restoration. Truth without love is worse than a lie but the truth spoken in love will set you free.

In the South, we have an expression called “losing your religion.” No, it’s not about deconstructing your faith. It’s more about where you get so mad that you act in ways contrary to your religious beliefs. And nowhere does that happen to me than sitting in traffic.

I can’t speak for your town or city, but Nashville drivers are nuts. And if I’m honest, I’m probably one of them. It’s amazing how aggravated I get over someone else’s dumb driving while I tend to be more lenient on myself. Talk about the ultimate double standard.

Then I discovered a book called Every Moment Holy. And I found within this book an amazing liturgy for road rage. It both convicted and challenged me. It reminds me that traffic may be one of God’s ways of shaping and molding me into a disciple. Slow traffic and bad drivers are God’s way of showing me my lack of patience — while growing that patience within me at the same time.

The worst witness is someone with a Christian bumper sticker who cuts people off and drives overly aggressively and who is generally impatient and rude. I guess it’s a good thing I don’t have any Christian bumper stickers on my car. Not that I consider myself a rude driver, but I do have my not so great moments. I’m thankful the life of faith isn’t one of perfection but of a grace that leads to repentance and transformation.

Traffic can be a crash course in learning how to dispense and receive grace, patience, and understanding to yourself and to others. And yes, that pun was intentional.

I made my first trek to Radnor Lake State Park since December 25, 2022. It’s been over 3 months, and I was definitely going through some Radnor withdrawals.

I didn’t stay long. The sky was threatening rain and I didn’t quite have the time I wanted to stay longer, but I whet my appetite for some outdoor magic. There really is something therapeutic about being outside in nature, alone with your thoughts. Groups are fine for hiking, but sometimes it needs to be just you and God, and nature is one of the best places to be tuned in to what God is saying to you.

I found out quickly that I’m not nearly in good shape like I thought I was. I felt fit until that first incline hit me, then I felt very much old and out of shape. It will take a little bit to get my hiking legs back, but the scenery and the peace are worth it.

I get why Jesus went off into the wilderness alone to spend time with His Father. It was more than just an escape from the crowds. It was being in the middle of creation — His creation — that took away the distractions and the noise and helped Him find His resolve for the journey to Jerusalem and to the cross.

So my plan is to hike as much as I can in the next few months while there is still enough daylight. I want to count the deer and turkeys. I want to be in the middle of the woods with the rain falling. I want to catch the sunset over the lake. I want to find God in the middle of His creation again.

I heard my pastor say something that has stuck with me all day: Jesus was not who we deserved or who we were hoping for, but He was exactly the Savior we needed at the moment when we needed Him most. He’s not the one we would have chosen if we had been given the choice, but He’s the only one who could make us right with God again.

Even on Palm Sunday, Jesus didn’t choose to be served but to serve. He chose to heed the cries of two blind men who had nothing to offer in return. He healed these men by touching their blindness when He could have merely spoken the words. He heard the shouts of Hosanna by the crowds who wanted Him to be a Conquering King but did not waver from His purpose to be a Suffering Servant. He knew that some of the very voices that cried Hosanna would later be calling for His crucifixion only a few days later.

I’m fairly certain that victorious warriors ride into town on majestic stallions, not on a colt following its mother. Jesus’ purpose was not to overthrow Rome but to overcome our sin by taking the death of a criminal on a cross. The people of Israel were not looking for a Messiah who would take on the form of a slave and become obedient to the point of death, but that’s the one they needed even more than a deliverer from Roman oppression.

Jesus may not have been what we hoped for or wanted, but He is exactly who we need right now. And He always meets us exactly in our moment of greatest need. Always.

I imagine these days the number of people who actually wash their cars by hand is small. Most people prefer to run their vehicles through the innumerable car washes around town. But I’m old school. There’s something innately satisfying about seeing the immediate results of all that dirt and grime washing away, especially if it’s been a while between car washes.

I gave my Jeep a bath today. She was quite dirty. So you can imagine the satisfaction of seeing a clean car, inside and out. It’s funny, but after a wash, my car looks like it’s a different color. I guess the ol’ Red Sled really was dirty.

I guess washing a car by hand is a lot like the spiritual disciplines. There are no shortcuts. Not at least if you want a job well done. It takes time and effort, and the more time and effort, the better the result.

I’m not saying that your spiritual maturity depends on you. God does the work in you. But the more time you devote to disciplines like prayer and Bible study, the more you will be able to discern God’s voice and God’s will. The more you will be able to help others attain spiritual maturity. The more you will be able to help others find healing and hope in Christ.

I imagine I might be a little sore in the morning. It’s probably wise for me to take an ibuprofen or two before going to bed. But it was worth it.

So I did a dumb thing today. I noticed that my Apple watch had died at some point during the day, so I took it off and put it in my office charging port for just a little bit to get it going again. Famous last words.

As of right now, it’s still sitting in that charging port, because I went right out the door at the end of the day and left it. So now my wrist feels naked and I keep staring down at where my watch should be. It’s awkward.

If that’s the worst thing that ever happens to me, I’m doing good. Not having a smart watch to count my steps and relay all my messages is a very first world problem. Lots of people are going through way worse than a MIA Apple watch. So I think I can manage for two days.

I could be tempted to wear an old fashioned watch. You know those? The ones that only tell time? Or at least I would if the batteries weren’t all dead.

I guess I’ll just have to go old school and rely on my phone to tell time.

Normally, I don’t copy and paste email content, but this one basically stopped me in my tracks. It got my attention. It perfectly encapsulates what I believe about what it means to worship and be a worshipper above and beyond singing four songs one or two days a week. Here it is:

“What comes to your mind when you think about worship? Do you think about a particular song or worship leader? Do you think about a style or feeling you get when you worship? Do you think about a past experience at church or a night of worship? Many of us have made worship about singing. I can often think about worship as an activity. I can flatten worship into singing or doing something for God. I want to gently nudge us to consider worship through a different paradigm. Paul writes in the epistle to the Romans, “therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.” Romans 12:1
 
Presenting ourselves before God is an act of worship. Worship is not just an activity, it is availability. Paul is urging us to be available to God as living sacrifices. Our worship is not confined to the time we gather to sing and study the word of God at Kairos. Worship is being available to God at all times. It means giving God access to all of your life. When you present yourself to God you are declaring that he is worthy of your affection and attention. You are putting God in his rightful place in your life.
 
So you may be asking, then why do we gather together to sing and study? The reason we gather is we need to be reminded that God is God. We quickly forget to present ourselves before him because we become distracted by the world and the busyness of life. We need to rest from the busyness of our day to present ourselves before God. He desires our presence” (Pastor Mike Harder, Kairos).

Worship is a lifestyle that transcends music and goes beyond one hour a week on Sundays. Worship is ultimately declaring the worth of God in everything we do and in everything we say, no matter where or when we are. That’s worship.