A day of hope

Over the years I have collected thoughts, quotes and materials from different sources and kept them with me over the years. There is no chronological order nor is there a listing based on “priority” or “importance” but these are all important to me.

And for an extraordinary day like today wherein, the entire world of Christendom celebrate Resurrection Sunday; these thoughts may find a way to inspire you and put hope in our heart:

As a young man, D.L. Moody was called upon suddenly to preach a funeral sermon. He hunted throughout the four Gospels trying to find one of Christ’s funeral sermons but searched in vain. He found that Christ broke up every funeral he ever attended. Death could not exist where he was. When the dead heard his voice, they sprang to life. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die” (John 11:25 New International Version).

The great British philosopher C.S. Lewis says: “At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all of the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumor that it will not always be so. Someday, God willing, we shall get in.”

The great and revered British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge said: “Plenty of great teachers, mystics, martyrs, and saints have spoken words full of grace and truth. In the case of Jesus alone, however, the belief has persisted that when he came into the world, God designed to take on the likeness of a man so that men might reach out.

For myself, as I approach my end, I find Jesus’ outrageous claim ever more captivating and meaningful. Quite often, waking up in the night as the old do, I feel myself to be half out of my body, hovering between life and death, with eternity rising in the distance. I see my ancient carcass, prone between the sheets, stained and worn like a scrap of paper dropped in the gutter and, hovering over it, myself, like a butterfly released from its chrysalis stage and ready to fly away. Are caterpillars told of their impending resurrection? How in dying they will be transformed from poor earth-crawlers into creatures of the air, with exquisitely painted wings? If told, do they believe it?

I imagine the wise old caterpillars shaking their heads — no, it can’t be; it’s a fantasy. Yet in the limbo between living and dying, as the night clocks tick remorselessly on, and the black sky implacably shows not one single streak or scratch of gray, I hear those words: I am the resurrection, and the life, and feel myself to be carried along on a great tide of joy and peace.”

And here is another one:

Every year thousands of people climb a mountain in the Italian Alps, passing the “stations of the cross” to stand at an outdoor crucifix. One tourist noticed a little trail that led beyond the cross. He fought through the rough thicket and, to his surprise, came upon another shrine, a shrine that symbolized the empty tomb. It was neglected. The brush had grown up around it. Almost everyone had gone as far as they cross, but there they stopped.

“Far too many have gotten to the cross and have known the despair and the heartbreak. Far too few have moved beyond the cross to find the real message of Easter. That is the message of the empty tomb,” says Lavon Brown.

And may I add, that empty tomb is the hope you and I have to cling on. And when you look at it from this point of view, then Resurrection Sunday is a day we are reminded of the Blessed Hope available for us and that it goes way beyond just the Easter bunny and hunting for eggs…yes…it goes way beyond it.

(Attend the two exciting and inspiring days of leadership training with Francis Kong in his highly acclaimed Level Up Leadership seminar-workshop on May 21-22 at Seda Vertis North, Quezon City. For registration or inquiries contact April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)