Easter Worthy

Easter Sunday began with an intense church marathon followed by an Easter egg hunt, Easter basket opening, fun get together at a friend's house and the 2 hour long Tallahassee episode of Extreme Home Make Over.
If anyone missed that show last night, I recommend finding it online somewhere and watching it. Not just because it has familiar scenes from the city I live in but because of the amazing story.
This couple, who live just 15 minutes across town, had one biological son and when he was 8 they decided to adopt a child from China. They not only felt the call to adopt, but they chose to adopt an older, special needs child because those were the kids who were least likely to find families. Over the years they have adopted a total of 6 children from Chinese orphanages, all with special needs. Three were born with cleft pallets, one is deaf, one is blind and one was born with missing bones in his hands. Sadly, the father of this amazing family was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was given 6 months to live. His anxiety about having his wife and children living in their delapatated house was a huge stress to him. The people at ABC heard the need and came to town last month to build then an AMAZING home, built specifically for their many needs. He was hospitalized just before production began and he passed away three days after the home was revealed to his wife and chidlren. It was as though he held on just long enough to know they would be OK and then he was able to rest in peace.
This story on ABC was etched with Christ-likeness, love, sacrifice and courage...and although I spent 6.5 hours in church yesterday morning, that 2 hour episode of Extreme Home Makeover was the perfect way to reflect on the true meaning of Easter.
I've been mulling over for a long time now what the church is vs. what it is suppose to be. Not that I am a scholar who knows anything about anything and I admit, I probably become far too negative on the subject and get frustrated with how often the 'point' is missed. What I have learned is that there is no perfect (or close to perfect) church because there are no perfect people. None the less, I've still had this twisting and turning in my spirit, almost a conviction but I've lacked the words to pray it through...until yesterday.
Yesterday (as previously mentioned) was church marathon day which started at 7am with sound check and ended at 1:30pm when I collapsed on my couch after singing my face off. In an effort to have great calves, I wore heels to church, which is a decision I came to regret shortly after the first of three services began.
We began singing a song which we had already practiced several times, but suddenly I felt as though I was hearing it for the first time.
"Let now Your church shine as the bride that You saw in Your heart as You offered up Your life."
That's it! That's the prayer I have been wanting to pray! That's the urgency within my heart and the conviction within my soul...to be the church Christ died for, the one He envisioned while suffocating on a cross, the one he called to action after rising from the dead. Man, I wish I could write music like that...
I believe that being a relevant and relatable church isn't about competing with or trying to blend in with pop culture. Neither is it about clinging desperately to man made tradition or the roots of it's denominational founders.
It's about BEING the Church. We don't have to re-invent the wheel. Everything we need to know about being God's people and spreading His message is written in His word and anything outside of it is up for questioning and can probably, honestly, be done away with. If we started being and doing, acting in faith rather than using silly gimmicks and shiny stuff to lure people in the doors, we would start to see masses of people not only coming to know the name of Christ, but sticking with it, because it would be real from the get go.
Salvation is birth but discipleship is sustaining life.
Easter is about not just remembering what Jesus did but living as though we truly believed it happened and giving of ourselves to ensure that He didn't die needlessly.
Trust me, I'm talking to myself before anybody else.
So that's my prayer now when I don't know what else to say.
"Let now Your church shine as the bride that You saw in Your heart as You offered up Your life."