Essay ~ Joy in the Morning: Pastel Day ~ LbtS

Joy in the Morning: Pastel Day 

By: LadyBytheSea 

     There's a duality in Easter for a Christian. On the one side, there are bright pastels, Easter egg hunts, dressing to the nines in new clothes, forgiveness, rebirth, mercy, love, joy, redemption, and all those other warm fuzzy feelings that make everything okay. Then there's the bloody mess of Jesus' broken body on the cross. What a 180°, right? Guilt, betrayal, gore, sin, death, pain, justice, punishment, and all those other cold, chilling feelings that make everything hurt.

     It's a hard thing to hear every year. To listen to the darkest part of Jesus' story in a new beautiful outfit around so many pastel decorated people. It breaks my heart every single time I read Matthew Chapter 26 and 27 or listen to a preacher talk about my Saviors death. Yes, there's joy in chapter 28. That's where the good news is, and the joy and the happily ever after and my sadness is taken away, but in the 26th and 27th, there's pain there. 

     I was nine years old when it hit me. At that point in my life, my parents dragged me to church almost every Sunday and Wednesday night. There were times I wanted to go, was ready to go with a smile. I enjoyed learning about Jesus and every one in the Bible, but it was the people that scared me. People terrified me. Sometimes they still do, but what truly scared me was people finding out my secrets. Yes, even nine-year-old's have secrets. 

     I have always been perceived as a good girl; a Bambi, innocent. But, even at nine, I knew that was not completely true. I lied. I cheated. I coveted. I got jealous. I dissed my mom and dad. I stole other peoples things. I took the Lord's name in vain, and I hated people; specifically, two people. I was guilty of breaking six Commandments. Six out of the Ten Commandments! People will say I was a child and shouldn't be held accountable for those things, but even a nine-year-old knows the difference between right and wrong. I knew I was doing wrong when I made those choices and I faced the consequences.

     Consequences: We're afraid of those. That's why we keep secrets and are so afraid of people's judgments; so afraid to come forward because consequences have pain and that fills us with fear. We're afraid of being wrong; admitting our sins. We carry it in our mind, silently screaming with the pain of our guilt, hoping one day we can confess them to someone we trust. 

     I was the reason Jesus was on that cross just as much as anyone else. Jesus loved me - an imperfect person who wouldn't be born for a long time who would break rules just like every other person does. Jesus loved me so much that he died so my guilt could be forgiven. All those commandments, I broke them knowingly and, some of them without regret until I listened in church to what the Bible said. All my sins were forgiven because Jesus lived, died, and rose again. His actions paid the price for my wrong doings. I was forgiven. 

     I was forgiven! This amazing good news about Jesus is because of His great love. I'm free of guilt and shame and I can live knowing I'm loved and free to say no to sin. I can enjoy my life with my LORD God, my Abba. It feels me with this childlike joy that makes me want to dance around in my pastel dress and sing at the top of my lungs and giggle! Even now, 14 years years later, I'm overwhelmed by My Lord's unconditional love for me and for the world. His love dumbfounds me time and time again because it's so different from the kind of conditional love I have for others. His love never ends, and I'm thankful my nine-year-old self heard the gospel and ran to accept the God of the Universe. 



Bible Verses: 

Matthew 26, 27, 28 
Romans 3:23 
Romans 6:23 
Romans 5:8 
Ephesians 2:8 - 9 
Romans 10:9-10 
John 3:16 
1 John 4: 7-21 
Hebrews 12:1 
Psalms 30

Essay ~ Easter ~ NL ~ 4

Easter

By: Naomi Lea

     Easter is the holiday of brightly colored dresses and ovular shaped chocolates. It's the holiday of that annoying, stringy, fake grass that people keep putting it in plastic wrapped gift baskets. The world is painted in pastels and the weather slowly begins to permit short sleeves.

    
     Humanity as a whole should be so happy as earth's seasonal changes bring about new life; as spring bursts forth from its restful, silent, wintry state. Though there are natural fireworks of celebration occurring in nature, how is it possible that a person can be sad or depressed? Especially when there is nothing really wrong with her life?

     This person is also a Christian and should have a deeper connection to Easter and its significance in her life. A Christian believes that Christ died and was resurrected three days later to save creation from sin. That is more than enough to be happy about, yet this girl found no special thrill as the holiday approached.

     Every Sunday since the beginning of Lent, she kept making resolutions to start anew in certain aspects of her life; a new gym membership, a diet, a prayer regimen, new organizational apps, and the restarting of hobbies. Though she tried again and again to change and renew her life and find passionate ambitions again, nothing stuck. After a few days she would lose the drive; become lazy, restless, and self-pitying.

     Then she remembered the movie Thumbelina, the cartoon version by Fox and Warner Bros. It showed the "changing of the leaves" as a festival for the fairies. They would fly throughout the world and change the summer saplings into red, orange, and brown bowers. The change could not happen without the fairies' magic and without their doing, there wouldn't be the four seasons.

     Just as the world couldn't change on its own, neither could she change her own life without the power of the one who created the world. She tried to do all these things within her own strength. That is why they all failed. That is also why the failure stunned her into regression; it was a stymie in which she felt completely alone. As she continued to try again with yet another surely fool-proof plan, the cycle continued, resulting in the fall and stagnation of what she deemed as progress.

     This was continuing on until this girl had a heart to heart with her mother. Mothers play such variant roles at all our stages in life and this time, her mother came in as the ultimate preacher and motivational life coach. After tears of frustration and confusion were shed, it became clear to the girl that the problem lay within her will to do things on her own. She realized that, as cliche as it may sound: God is in control and He is the one that makes changes, not any earthly power.

     With that reawakening, she thought again towards Easter and what it meant. That resurrection of life, that ability to commune with God could not have happened with just humans willing it to be so. Even if people did their best to follow all of God's ordinances, waking up each day with good intentions not to sin, such strategies would not prevail. It's clearly recorded how well that plan worked in the Old Testament. The only way forward is to submit to the power of God, just as nature laid open and vulnerably submitted to the fairy magic which wrought the most beautiful changes.

     So as Easter drew near yet again, the girl thought to herself that maybe it was time to stop trying to make herself new. Instead, she figured she would let the fairy magic take root and transform her into whatever God had planned for her. She would be like the trees and flowers who have no choice but to obey their maker. She would wake up not trying to find out what gives her drive and motivation, but instead seek it through prayer and scripture. As she pondered such thoughts, she grew excited and eager for the coming Easter. It would be truly be a time of celebration, for now she knew that it would not be about her becoming new, but about new life being manifested within her. It would not be about cleaning up her own life and implementing changes, but laying down all personal agendas and allowing herself to be touched and washed. It was about putting down, not putting on. Just as Christ put down himself so that we may have life, so it is for the Believer to put down her own self.

     The girl now looked to the coming Easter with a quiet happiness. Her life felt rekindled. She knew with a blessed assurance that the fairy magic would keep changing the seasons and that God would bring changes in her, too.