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.