Spiritual Reset
We often need a reset.
We can get a physical reset after a nap or a good night’s sleep. We prompt a mechanical reset when we fill the gas tank in the car and clear the trip meter. We need an electronic reset every now and then when cell phones work poorly and need to be powered off and restarted. In the past year a pandemic triggered for us a cultural and behavioral reset.
Resets allow us to start over. They provide punctuation in our lives, creating pauses of varying lengths. Resets help us get back to normal or even create a new, better normal.
Easter provides a spiritual reset for everyone who chooses to believe and follow Jesus. In the beginning, God created a perfect world and took great pleasure in all that He created, most notably humans created in His own image. (Genesis 1) Before long, we humans introduced our imperfections to this world, and we still struggle with our shortcomings today. God saw us wander away from Him – from His perfect love and His perfect ways – and loved us enough to send His Son, Jesus, to show us the path back to God.
Jesus taught that the two most important commands were to love God and to love other people. (Mark 12:29-31) If we’re honest, we know that we don’t always follow these instructions very well. We get distracted by ambition, comparisons, laziness or greed. On good days we actually attempt to love God and others, but we often fail. We miss the mark. It’s like we’re shooting for the target in archery but we miss the bullseye. The arrow may hit the outside of the target or miss it altogether. Some days we’re just not very good archers.
When God sent His Son, Jesus, He reminded us of the depth of His love and His perfect plan. He offered to pick up all those errant arrows and let us try again. When we trust Jesus to bring us back to God, He erases our record of mistakes and we start over. “If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV) It’s a spiritual reset!
When we remember Jesus’ death and celebrate His resurrection, we embrace God’s offer for us to start over and live in His love. He invites us to a reset as often as we need it. Try it today, either again or for the first time. - Kathy Raines, Minister of Administration