What does Easter mean to you? Is one of the few days of the year that you go to church? Is it a time that family gets together and you think of how thankful you are to have all of the members of your family? Is it simply chocolate, those nasty Peeps, and Easter bunnies? Whatever it means to you, I hope you enjoyed your Easter this year.
Today, my family spent time together at church. This isn’t anything new, we go to church regularly. This year it felt a little different because we are in an interesting place as it relates to a church home for us. Since Christmas, we have been doing some searching. Literal and figurative searching as we think through our current church home. You may have guessed, this is a much bigger discussion for another time…
Most of us spent several hours this afternoon with friends. We met them for lunch and I enjoyed a tasty beer I have never had before. I hesitate to name and describe it for fear my one beer-shaming friend will see this and comment. You know who you are… After lunch, two dads took five kids to a bike park and we hit a BMX pump track and a mountain bike trail together. We rode, we chilled, we hung out, we enjoyed the company and friendship of our families. Except for Ronda, she was stuck doing trial prep for a big trial she has coming up later this week. Don’t worry, I have been helping her out as much as I can.
But Easter was different this year. We didn’t cook a big meal, we didn’t have lots of people over, we didn’t make a big fuss at our house. We just went to church, ate lunch, and hung out with friends. As I sit here and look back on the day, it was likely one of my favorite Easters in recent years. Despite not making a big production of it, we made sure we hit the important parts of the day.
Food. We had food together and spent time talking to each other about things that matter in each of our lives.
Fun. We spent time together and after lunch, we didn’t tackle any large topics or discussions, we just spent time together and showed that we care about each other. I’m not going to use the catch phrase that we ‘did life together’, but I am going to say that we spent time together today, just being together today when we both needed it.
The importance of being together can’t be overrated. This is particular relevant to me as I wrestle to make sense of some things going on in my life right now. No, I don’t have anything monstrous or catastrophic happening in my life at the moment. But, I am wrestling with understanding how to navigate through a few things. Being able to be with other people and be myself and not have to worry about what they think about me feels nice.
Being able to talk to someone else who understands life is not all roses and just because we are Christians doesn’t mean life is easy and without struggle. Being able to respond to their frustrations with, ‘I feel the same way! It’s good to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t buy that lie.’
I suppose what I am really trying to say is this… whatever Easter means to you, I hope that your Easter was enjoyable and you were able to spend time with people who matter to you, doing things that matter to you.
Eli Westfall 