Life at the Cross Section

Every year at this moment my life comes to a standstill. I try to get my work done but I have to admit I have trouble keeping my concentration. I wish I could say it is because of something deeply spiritual. But the truth is, it’s because this week is a collision of so many things that I look forward to all year long. It’s the culmination of the NCAA Basketball Tournament known as March Madness. It’s the commencement of golf at it’s finest, in a golf tournament known as The Masters. And it’s celebration of a week of rest known as Spring Break, which comes at the end of what is usually a tough first quarter of work. When all these things come together in one week, the anticipation leading up to that week drives me through the cold, dark days of January, because I know there is life and light at the end of the tunnel. So, I’m sitting here on Spring Break typing this week’s email with The Masters golf tournament playing in the background setting just the right ambience to get what work I must get done finished.

It’s amazing to me the way these simple celebrations give me so much life. I can literally be happy for hours just sitting in front of the television with a snack in one hand and a cold beverage in the other. And I think it’s because as much as I love the sports and rest, it also is symbolizing to me that the best days of the year are still ahead. It’s time to get the golf clubs and swimsuits back out. The long days of summer that provide enough light to get a round of golf in or head to the pool with the family after work are just around the corner. The sounds of One Shining Moment at the end of the NCAA Tournament, or the intoxicating Masters music playing in the background inaugurate a whole new season of things to come. And the time-tested rituals of watching television and eating more food than I should eat are doing their work in the recesses of my soul.

As humans, we need these kinds of celebrations and rituals to wake our lives back up to the things we enjoy most. And as much as they are nice when it comes to sports and Spring Break, they are even more necessary when it comes to our lives spiritually. See, as long as people have been worshipping a God, this worship has been kept alive by Celebrations that help ignite the heart to the things that matter most. Every nation has its Holidays (Holy Days). Every religion has its Feasts and Festivals. And as Christians, this week we enter ours. Far more sacred than The Masters or March Madness, this next week if we will let it do its work has the power to call our lives back to center. For it is in this week, that all of life finds its meaning.

Welcome to Holy Week. I look forward to seeing you this week for what we call Palm Sunday, where we begin our march toward the culmination of the Christian calendar we call Easter. We anticipate a fantastic week of celebration together where we stand literally at the cross-section of life and death and awaken again to the grace that stands on the other side.