alive

for weeks i've been trying to piece together coherent thoughts that i felt were blog worthy. i've gone down many rabbit trails, even started a few incomplete ramblings. but honestly, that's how the last few months in my world have been. fragmented bursts of thoughts and emotions. it's exhausting. :)

so, here's my hopefully not so incomplete thought for the day...

i've been a christian for most of my life. i am not patient, and i am not an academic. reading for me is a leisure activity. so, when i read the bible i read it more like a book. like, 'oh isn't that interesting or entertaining.' study it? well, therein lies a weakness. in the last couple of months i've been part of a bible study (of the book of colossians) that has forced me to slow down. to read and reread, to analyze. to look things up and cross-reference. not something that comes real easy for me. and just doesn't sound like fun. but it's been good. real good!

i posted this verse on my fb status in honor of easter and what today means to me.

'And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.' Col 2:13-15

why this for easter? easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. a man whose life and death (and resurrection) is the cause of so much debate, belief, disbelief, hope (the list goes on!) for 2000 years!

what does this verse mean to me? well, as a living, breathing human being i was dead in my trespasses (i.e. a sinner. imperfect. unholy. not worthy to be in the presence of a holy and perfect God). Jesus, the image of God, in whom the fulness of Diety dwelt, fully man and fully God was put to a most excruciating death. He was the only perfection on this earth and was put to death. but He overcame death! that's a pretty dang big deal!! because of this event Jesus was not bound by human laws, the laws of the world. the list of all the 'bad' things i have done (my 'record of debt', trespasses) was canceled, torn up, burned up, made completely non-existant because of the retribution Christ made for all (ALL!!!) when He died. Because He rose again, he triumphed over death and what His death represented (the punishment of wrong doing).

this, my dear friends, is totally and completely worth celebrating. and makes me complete and whole. not broken and fragmented like my thoughts and emotions.