Enjoy the Jump!

With Easter fresh on my mind, I can't help but go there in my writing. My  belly is still full from yesterday's family dinner. And after the Sunday service, my heart is still filled with the joy that, not only did Jesus conquer death by rising from the dead, not only did his crucifixion cover my inadequacies and wrongs, but he invited you and me to each be a part in sharing the goodness and joy back into the world and to tell others that they are invited to do it too! And sharing joy and goodness with others brings so much joy to ourselves that we want to do more.

But, if you are at all like me, it's easy to forget what Jesus died for and to start the thought that doing lots of good things on this earth is a prerequisite to gaining eternal life in heaven. We start comparing ourselves to others. It's not wrong to do good things, but it's pretty easy to get caught up in trying to live a sacrificial life that will outdo everyone else, or at least get us into the top "average" that will get us by when St. Peter comes knocking. And that's where right goes wrong.  We try a little harder to live right, doing some good things here and there and everywhere we can, stressing ourselves out by doing too much and for the wrong reasons. Somehow, just having the wrong goal seems to chase all of the goodness and joy right out the window.  

That's where the Easter story comes in. I'm going to guess that everyone that reads this far, already knows or at least has access to the story and so I won't repeat it. But maybe some of you only know the Easter story as just a story that comes with a bunch of does and don't. Well it's not and it doesn't, because later in the Bible it says that if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that God raised Jesus from the dead then you will be saved. Pretty simple, but it pretty much makes Easter the key to eternal life. Whether you believe it is up to you.   

So why do we forget and so easily get caught up in doing good and earning our way? 

Several Sundays ago our youth pastor, Daniel, preached and he asked the children to come up front to see who could jump the highest. Well it seemed like there were a gazillion kids lined up across the front of the church jumping and clowning around. Some of them looked embarrassed to be in front of an audience but all of them looked like they were having a blast. Some weren't concerned about how high. They were just having fun jumping. Then Daniel asked for some of the older youth to come up and jump. When a couple of six foot plus-ers started to jump, well the little kids were amazed. I'm sure some of them thought, "when I get old, I'm going to jump like that." 

Then Daniel told them that the goal had been to jump to the moon and asked if any of them had reached it. Well they hadn't. Some of them appeared a little glum about the thought that they weren't even close to the goal. In fact, looking at the space between the ceiling and the kids, it looked like the kids and the older youth were all jumping about the same, and what's the fun in that? The point was that we shouldn't be too judgemental about how high our neighbor is jumping, that we are really not much different from them, that we all fall way short now matter how high we jump. 

But for me, I saw so much joy in the kids that were jumping, at least before they knew what the goal was.

So here are my thoughts for today.

Don’t get caught up in trying to outdo your neighbor, but whatever you do, do it joyfully.  There’s more good that comes from doing something joyfully than the act itself.

Enjoy the jump!