living in the afterglow

It is fun to revel in the memories of a great basketball game. My wife is always surprised at the itensity of enthusiasm men can express when rehearsing an athletic context, not unlike the recent NCAA Men's basketball finals between Butler and Duke. Come on...what a game! Butler had two last second opportunities to create its own "Hoosiers II" story...but missed it by a hair, losing in the end by two points. That is worthy of lots of discussion and revisiting by my friends who love basketball as much as I do.

Of course, over a week has passed now and the lustre of that context has dimmed as the demands of everyday real life set in. There is nothing about that game, extraordinary as it was, that is life-changing for me. It was a pleasant, almost mystical, interruption in my daily life and gave me a few hours of real excitement and happiness.

It would be a tragedy to treat Resurrection Sunday the same way. Wow! What an exciting service! Great music! A full house at church! (Good food, too) And then we gather with friends and rehearse what we remember about the day, exchange our favorite memories of the day...and for a few days we live in the afterglow of its emotion and pathos.

I have determined to revisit my hope anchored in the resurrection daily, if necessary. I suppose for me it is easier than most. As a Hospice chaplain I am almost daily confronted with the dying. Into rooms of suffering, disease and death I enter with a message of hope pulsating within my heart--hope in Christ because He rose from the dead and promsied those who believe in Him, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." John 11:25,26.

This verse ends with these words--"Do you believe this?"

It's the question I leave with you. Living in the afterglow will last only as long as the emotion of the moment. But the long-term efficacy of the truth of the resurrection can resonate within our hearts daily when we have trusted in Christ for our salvation.