On a Day Like Today

Yesterday evening, I set my alarm on my phone. Overnight, daylight saving time kicked in. This morning, my hand turned off the alarm almost as a reflex, without properly engaging my brain. On a day like today, my body wasn't keen to accept an hour less in bed.

Today is Sunday. It's the weekly day when some prepare a roast, others tinker with their cars, and if the weather permits, families might find time to visit the park. It's also the day when Christians around the world gather together to worship God. For those leading acts of worship, then, it's a day when much preparation and planning come together, and we put ourselves in front of others to 'minister', to serve. I find this is fairly often preceded by an acute sense of my own insufficiency and inability, compounded by a niggling feeling of futility.

On a day like today, it can be something of a battle to go through with all that has been planned for. If the kids press my buttons, if we didn't tidy the kitchen properly the day before, and/or if my hormones are raging, it can take all the self-control I can muster to have a half-decent attitude even at home. Once the church gathers, throw in a bunch of dud notes (from me), a few remarks about preferred songs, a bit of a sermon that I think I've fluffed, or a comment from someone offering deeper biblical insights, and I may feel inclined to quit any number of things that I'm involved in. Here's the thing, though. On a day like today, no matter how fierce the internal battle, at some point I find myself out the other side, seeing clearly again. It's like fighting through a dense, thorny thicket, and then suddenly bursting out into a lush, sun-warmed meadow where I can move freely, breathing in the delights of all that's around me.

Today is not just any Sunday. It's Easter Sunday. It's the annual day, when even more than all other Sundays, we particularly focus upon Jesus' resurrection. There are other Christian traditions who make much more of Lent than Free Methodists (here in the UK, anyway) tend to, but today I've been struck again by the image of progressing through this period. From Ash Wednesday's reminder of our mortality and need for God, we journey towards the darkness and sorrow of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, and then pass through it to the life and joy of Christ's Resurrection. On a day like today, I can know that whilst I experience battles, the war is already won—Jesus has ultimately 'burst out the other side', defeating all that threatens to destroy us. I can know that it's always worth persevering with what God leads me into, because it's one way that my life can be as it should be: an ongoing proclamation of that incredibly good news.⬦

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