FootprintsintheWind.com

To our good friends–

I am not particularly in to the church services for Good Friday this year. But right on cue there is a darkness coming, and the weather suggests a 40% chance of thunderstorms today. Yes, I know you died to make a point that life is bigger than death. There was much pain around your death. There are lessons to learn from what you said and how you lived those last few hours. Yet I am wondering if there is perhaps a larger lesson wisdom from it. Died for our sins is a peculiarly temple way to look at what happened—this relates to the notion of priests and sacrifices. I don’t see a God who wants sacrifice as the key to this. I see a G*d who wants to say, You matter so much to me, see, I will have my son suffer, just to make that point, and the point that your life is larger than your death. It is not that you will survive and live in some Heaven years from now: it is that you can do much larger things now! If I give myself to the full price, you can too, and you will then really live. You will live here and now and there will be a heavenly realm now, on this earth. You will have brought about the new Heaven and the new Earth, in an instant! Live, will you, live!

So, rather than being a somber humorless time, I see this as a time of celebration: look what happens when you can give away your life. Today. It is not that death was conquered, death never had a hold to begin with, death never was real.

Sure, we can re-live what the disciples went through and witness the pain on the cross: it is saying this is real, this is earnest, this is blood and mud and no beer. So is our need to get in there and work at love. Love is hard work. Love is dangerous work. Love is sweaty and working against and over obstacles, love is clearing the woods to build, love is planting the crops, love is hoeing the weeds, love is pounding the fiery iron into shape, love is getting your blood drawn and your body quartered, in some way. Love is living on this muddy ball.

:- Doug.