Easter: New Life. New Beginning

So it's Easter Day. After 40 days of Lent the World breathes a sigh of relief, as to chocolate sellers everywhere rejoice as their sales return to normal.

The month or so of self flagellation and religious claptrap and nonsense is over and we return to the behaviour types we had prior to the annual attempt at self control in irrelevant areas.

Easter needs to be more than that. Like Advent, which is supposed to be a time of eager expectation waiting for the second coming, Easter should be a time to rejoice over Christ's Victory over Sin, Death and Hell. Instead it almost invariably becomes a time for us to relax and return to the norm of our mundane lives. Envying the neighbour's for their new car or girlfriend/boyfriend. Resenting the family member who only gave you a single mini egg instead of the giant one you'd asked for.

What's wrong with us?

We've become jaded by the World. It's insidious grip has tightened around our throat once more and we have been blinded once again to the needs of the masses. Celebrity gossip fills the news as some starlet is arrested and this takes precedence over the hundreds killed in an earthquake - unless it's in the USA.

The message is simple: the media tells us the poor in far off countries don't matter because they're poor and in far off countries.

And we buy into it.

Without thinking.

Without challenging.

Without caring.

Ouch.

We send a few dollars to some arbitrary collection to ease our conscience, but we make sure it's from the "it won't affect us" fund before we do.

Ouch. Drive another nail into Christ.

This Easter let's try to start something new.

Let's carry on what we've looked at over the last 40 days.

Let's continue to move in compassion - but to actually move. If all you can do is give money, make it a sacrifice - or don't bother to say it's in the name of Christ. Give time to a soup kitchen to help the poor and homeless in your community - I guarantee you have them. The Southern Hemisphere is moving into winter. People die of cold in Africa too. Find out what aid agencies actually ship blankets for children. Find out which ones support education projects in countries where the state is too corrupt to care because the biggest challenge to a corrupt leadership is an educated people.

Celebrate the New Life in Christ we have already been Blessed with by making a New Beginning that Lent has prepared our hearts for: Fight for injustice - not the paper cut-outs of "gay" marriage that cover the newspapers, but the injustices of a pastor handing out food to the homeless being told he has to stop because his truck is unlicensed for food distribution and needs a $500 permit. Not the tut-tutting of the overindulgent actor whose choices put them in a coma but the half starved inner city single mother who's working 3 jobs to try to get her kids through school alive but gets no publicity because she's not important to the world.

New Life.

New Beginning.

This Easter, make a difference that will last. And do what Jesus would do. Let the World laugh. Make Christ rejoice.