i don’t know if you guys noticed this or not, but apparently something big happened yesterday. i’m not quite sure what it was, but people were dressed up more than normal at church, there were more than, and everyone kept saying this cheesy, “he is risen. he is risen indeed.” type of call and answer. it was weird.

people were acting like this whole christianity thing revolved around yesterday.

okay, that was my bad attempt at sarcasm on the internet. yesterday was easter. we all know that. twitter and facebook were blown up with easter type tweets and status updates. they were everywhere. even the bojangles in my hometown was closed because of it.

growing up and through college, easter involved going to church and hearing my grandpa preach the easter story. sure, sometimes there were plays or musicals or whatever, but the one constant was that my grandpa presented the gospel story at some point.

in the recent years, my parents gave all of us the option: wake up and go to the city sunrise service that he was doing or go to the regular service at the home church. since all of us absolutely hated pretty much everything about that church, we would always choose the sunrise service. we’d roll out of bed, throw some sweats and a hoodie on, and then drive over to central park and sit through the sunrise service.

notice i said “sit through.”

we were just there. we didn’t want to be. it was the lesser of two evils really. we didn’t wake up wanting to go to church that morning. we loved jesus and were glad what happened so long ago happened, but we didn’t want to go to either of those services.

it just became routine for us.

yesterday was the first time that i’d been in church on an easter sunday where my grandpa wasn’t the preacher. over the past two years, i’ve gotten more and more involved in my church in lynchburg. while so many other people went home to go to church with their families, there was no place i wanted to be other than my church.

my alarm clock went off at 7:30. i woke up without even hitting the snooze button. that never happens. i was in a good mood. it was easter. as i was getting ready, i listened to a few songs that i knew were about the easter story. (yes, one of them was beautiful the blood by steve fee, aka “that song every modern church played during worship yesterday.”) i got to church at 8:30. i ended up serving for both services yesterday morning. i was in a better mood and had more energy than i do on most sundays.

this year, i didn’t sit through the easter service.

this year, it wasn’t a lesser of two evils.

this year, easter was something i wanted to celebrate.

i realize that most of the people reading this are in college or just out of college. most of you have your “home church” that you’ve been going to as long as you can remember. it’s become routine and comfortable.

stop doing the routine and comfortable.

don’t go to church simply because your mom wants you to. don’t go some place simply because your parents go there and that’s where you’ve always been. find a church that you like, one that you enjoy going to and can jump in and get involved.

i enjoyed easter more yesterday than i ever have in my life.

and it was all because i did it on my own terms.

say your prayers and take your vitamins.

have a nice day.

-jonathan