I have a theory: every bad thing we do actually comes from a good desire. Sin is a derailment of love. It is when, in pursuit of that which we want the most, we derail and chase our desire down a rotten path.
Resurrection is about bringing back to life that which has been buried. In all the chaos and confusion, those innate good desires have so often been buried. In all the external circumstances and the things that haven’t gone our way, we have lost focus. We have drifted. Abandoned our first and truest love for something a little easier, a little more immediate.
We talk so much about putting bad things to death in our lives. Perhaps we need to talk more about bringing good things to life.
The Newness of Spring
Easter is the season of resurrection. Spring. Newness. It is amazing to watch New York City come to life as the weather gets warmer. People are no longer shuffling hurriedly to their destinations. They are walking slower, literally smelling the roses. They are out in droves, in less of a rush. It is as if a new wind of life has been pumped into the city.
Even in New York, flowers are abundant. They are planted, placed by design. But they are there. And they bloom. They come to life, seemingly out of nowhere.
One of the false assumptions I make in my own life is that by eliminating problems, solutions will arise. In fact, I often think eliminating problems is the solution. But in reality, they are two different enterprises. Tear out a weed and all you have is soil. You have to plant a seed if you want a flower to grow.
When I see those flowers sprout all over the city, I am reminded that someone planted them, long before they came to life. The ground was toiled, the seed nurtured.
So many of us are obsessed with pulling out weeds. We just have empty soil. Where more foreign weeds find fertile ground.
What we need is to focus on life. To plant and nurture that which produces abundance.
Death and Resurrection
When we endeavor to bury our sin, we are only doing half the work. In its place is nothingness, apathy. For life to grow, we need to pursue life.
The weeds in our lives are those false paths. The ones that choke truth and love and goodness out of our lives. I am not talking about external circumstances but internal characteristics. When we till the ground, digging out what doesn’t belong, we set ourselves to neutral. If we stay there, we are left with apathy and complacency. Or, we revert back to the familiar path.
To grow into newness, we must resurrect our first love. We must name our values, determine what it is our sin was so poorly and ineffectually trying to achieve. And start to pursue a better route for the fulfillment of that deep desire.
Our values have been buried. Suffocated under the debris of the expectation of others, false internal narratives, and a false hope for ease and short-cut (to name a few). Easter is about finding them again. That is the hope of Jesus. The hope of death and resurrection. That we can repent of our false paths, reorient to our true desire, and begin anew.
