Living Towards Resurrection

Recently I’ve been staring at a compass on my desk, watching the “true north” needle remain stubbornly pointed in the same direction no matter how much I fiddle with or spin the compass itself. That’s the beauty of a compass, no matter what part of the world you are in or how lost you may feel, a compass will always point you north. During Lent, we see a decisive turn in Jesus as he begins to orient himself towards Jerusalem — the place of rejection, suffering, and death. He stubbornly and vigilantly walks the road with his disciples leading to the cross. He has a clear sense of direction, a persistent orientation towards a death that ultimately leads to resurrection life.

I wonder what it might look like if we were able to as persistently orient our own lives towards death and resurrection. What might it mean to have our guiding needle always pointed towards self denial and cross-carrying discipleship? How might our daily living change if we were always expectantly hoping for the sunrise of resurrection with each new dawn? This Lent, as I’ve been fixated on this compass, I have been challenged to “re-orient” my own daily living towards death and resurrection. In practice, this looks like trying to value the deep needs and suffering of others above concern for my own comfort and interests; it means expecting God to bring new life out of even the most dark and devastating circumstances.

For the Launch Team working towards planting this new faith community anchored in First Methodist, we have begun to orient ourselves towards resurrection. Our prayer is that this new faith community will mean new life for people who have been disconnected from Christian community. It is our prayer that the new life each of us has found in Jesus Christ will embody the hope of the resurrection for a new generation. We have our “true north” needle vigilantly set on Easter morning. As we celebrate God’s planting of this new community, we will gather together at sunrise on Easter as a witness that God is raising us to new life, that we are an Easter people. As we worship together, we will sing songs of resurrection, give witness to how God is giving each of us new life, and proclaim the good news that death & destruction do not have the last word. We will join in the chorus of the Good News echoing down the corridors of time, “Christ is risen, he is risen indeed!”

“Resurrection means the worst thing is never the last thing.”
– Frederick Buechner

In Christ,
Ricky Harrison