Hello Church,
I made it through another Holy Week. How tragic that pastors often think this way. Not 'I had another awesome Holy Week', but 'I MADE IT THROUGH another Holy Week.' How tragic.
Here is an explanation from just one pastor.... the only one I have the most hope to understand... me.
Faith is written with permanent marker on my heart. It won't go away. Christ compels me to continue driving forward, seeking goodness. We had a good Holy Week and a good Easter Sunday. However, my permanent marker won't go away. It's the day after Easter Sunday and it's still there.
There is a price to be paid for this.
I sometimes lament my lack of creative excitement. For example, I look around and see the glamour of Easter in other places. Churches, specifically, catch my eye. Extra special events; bigger-than-usual plans; higher energy; etc are done with Easter Sunday specifically in mind. However, I look at myself and I see none of that desire. Easter is great, but my desire to put extra creative excitement into it is lacking. I sometimes lament this. And I know there are people in the church who lament having such a pastor as well.
But I also understand myself. It's the permanent marker.
Creative excitement cannot last. I know this. Next Sunday every church will be back to the normal. People who participated last Sunday won't be seen again for many months (maybe a year exactly). And who will be the one to continue driving Faith forward? It won't be the people who expended extra-special energy into Easter and want to rest until Mother's Day or Memorial Day or Pentecost.... or Christmas. It will be the people who have Faith written on their hearts with permanent marker; Faith that reads just as clearly on any given, normal day. I am one of those. And I do not lament it nor apologize for it.
Let me be a bit more transparent and show a bit of my frustration with church life. The desire to be a day-to-day, grind-it-out, marthon-running disciple is too rare. I don't claim to have it all together, but that is my point. Because I don't, I understand the necessity of having God's Holy Spirit working on me every moment.... not just when creative excitement is before me.. not just when Easter or Pentecost or Christmas conks me on the head. Even more so, I believe having the ups and downs of 'extra-special' events hurts me. My day-to-day grind of following Jesus has difficulty handling the emotional ups and downs of 'extra-special' celebrations in the church. This is because the Sunday after is always back to normal... and often times the people that were 'all in' are suddenly gone again. I want every Sunday to be normal... to be normally exciting.
Maybe this is why I have been called Scrooge in December and why Doubting Thomas (the Sunday after Easter) is just as significant to me as Mary running to the disciples on Sunday morning. I want even-keel.... because the permanent marker won't go away. I want my Faith to be equally legible all 52 Sundays of every year, regardless of the occasion.
And I want a church to be willing to pick up the pieces when all the excitement goes away. I want a church that will drive forward when other churches are resting from partying too much. I want a church that is the consistent mainstay of a community through all the grind. I want a church that has Faith written with permanent marker upon its heart. I don't want an especially great attendance on Easter. I want a normally great attendance every Sunday. I want a church that leads the charge when other churches don't see the man-made advantages of such.
Easter is here. New leadership is in place. Now it is time to start doing.
Are you worn out from all the special excitement last week?
I am not.
God is Good,
Pastor Joe
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