Preparing

In our house, we are preparing for Easter. Usually we begin by celebrating Lent and giving up something. I've given up TV watching and chocolate (if you know me, this is difficult!) to name a couple. The kids give up candy or something simple like that. But this year, our household was in an upheaval and we missed planning for Lent unfortunately.

But nonetheless, we are reading Scripture every morning before school and praying that we would be moved again by Jesus' sacrifice and love for us. As a family, we'll attend the Good Friday service at the Conexus Centre and the kids will attend the Good Friday youth service at Western Christian College in the evening.

One pet peeve I have of evangelical GF services is that they already have Jesus risen and there isn't much time for comtemplating his death and suffering. I know the resurrection is the pinnacle of our faith as it shatters death but I think, particularly in our culture, we like to get there too quickly without ample time for reflection on what it was that sent Jesus to the cross and how excrutiatingly painful the crucifixion truly was. We like to make everything "nice" and get everything back to "normal. I hate nice. And I'm not much for normal either. Jesus didn't die to make us nice. He didn't die so we could live normal lives. He died to make us radical, bold, counter cultural, free, grace-filled and a whole lot of other things but never, never to be nice and normal. That would be a waste of his precious blood.

(Someone recently told me, "I knew you couldn't be normal." I took it as a compliment.)

We'll see what happens this year at the GF service.