JourneyOnline
This year has been a time of great stress and suffering across our state and in many parts of the world.
While there are many like me who were not directly affected, we have all felt the pain of those who have lost so much and been so grief stricken.
Can I assure you all that I have continued to pray for those who are finding the going a hard struggle.
This Easter I would encourage all of us to enter deeply into the story of Christ’s Passion, death and resurrection. In this story we find our experience united with the experience of God who become one with us in Jesus.
In this story our story finds hope.
We may feel like we are in agony in the Garden of Gethsemane; we may be crying out "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"; we may feel like we are lying in the tomb wondering if there is any resurrection.
The faith of the Christian church for thousands of years is that no matter what we go through God always brings new life and victory.
Please don’t give up hope.
Share all your feelings with God just as Jesus did and trust that God is holding you in his love.
I pray that as you gather with God’s people on Easter Day you will know the joy of resurrection and that even if the fullness of that experience seems still some way off, you can go forward with confidence that nothing in all creation will be able to separate you from Christ Jesus our Lord.
Have a blessed and hope filled Easter.
