Bullets for the Battle

Easter: Accepting Reality, Part 1

The reason that the resurrection of Christ has less meaning for Christians than it should and is really a mystery to most non-Christians, is the refusal to mix it with suffering. Pain and resurrection go together. The latter will never come without the former.

The greatness of resurrection victory is woefully diminished by the smallness of our vision of reality.

One practical expression of this is that so many Christians seem to think all they have to do is trust and pray, and God will pull of the hard stuff without their effort. This is immaturity and shallowness at its worst! Christ didn’t pray His way through the cross, He actually went there! His suffering wasn’t a “quickie” and then on with the fun. He hung there for six hours and then was sealed in a tomb! Agony and silence preceded His triumph.

In man’s blindness and lust for the easy, we refuse to mix agony and ecstasy. We deny the necessity of pain and seek only joy. We hunger for the happy times and are mystified at the place of grief. We disdain our need for suffering and thirst selfishly for more pleasure! Eric Heiden, the winner of seven gold medals at the 1980 Winter Olympics in speed skating, attributed his success to the pain he endured in training, “If a person’s going to win,” he said, “he has to be prepared to suffer for it.”