We Are the Easter People

Though so much of my work has been focused on Easter lately, I don't think it really sunk in until today how much we need Easter. It hit me tonight, in the middle of a week of discouragement and exhaustion. I wanted to give up, to say that I'd failed, to cry from frustration, to give up. And I suddenly realized then that doing so would make me a complete hypocrite.

To give in to despair and sadness, instead of pressing forward and doing what needs to be done- that is saying that Easter doesn't matter. That Christ, who defeated every evil and even death itself- can't defeat the problems in my own life. Instead, we all have to have hope and to keep going. That is the promise of Easter. That one day things will be better, that Christ truly has all things in control, that it is not stupid or unrealistic to have hope for a better future.

Maybe this isn't the best way to explain it, but tonight it just really hit me how much I myself have to have hope in the Resurrection, instead of just preaching it to other people. Maybe this discouragement tonight was God reminding me of this. We all need this hope in the promise of a better future and in the power of  God to work miracles in our lives. Because this hope is for all of us. We just need a little reminder sometimes.

Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter People and 'Halleluljah' is our song. ~John Paul II