Last year a buddy of mine invited my family over to his house on Easter morning for an Easter Egg Hunt. So on Easter morning we loaded the kids up and headed over to hunt down some eggs. Now I’m not sure what my kids were expecting but I personally imagined a couple dozen colored eggs strategically hidden around the front yard that the kids would joyfully collect until quickly unraveling into a scratch and claw fest for the final few.

As we pulled in the driveway, I could instantly see the front yard littered with eggs (I so would have dominated those kids), but not only was the front yard filled with eggs but the back yard was as well Seems that instead of a couple dozen eggs, my friend the night before had hidden almost a HUNDRED plastic eggs. If that wasn’t enough he had marked a special section as the “Kasey Section” where only my 2 year old daughter could go. It was amazing. The kids had an absolute blast and the adults were able to stand and talk and share in the excitement each time one of our kids yelled “I found another one”.

At some point during the morning, as the kids continued to turn up eggs I asked my buddy how long this whole thing took him to put together. He told me he had spent about an hour putting candy inside the plastic eggs and about two hours hiding them all. As we pulled away from their house that day I started to think about how there was almost a direct correlation between the time my buddy had spent preparing for that day and the amount of joy that everyone experienced.

Since that time I have also come to the realization that I have never spent as much time preparing for Easter, that my friend spent last year. Growing up completely “un-churched” my preparation for Easter was pretty much the same year in and year out. I would wake up hung-over (Easter is on Sunday after all) shave (maybe) and get dressed up to do something that I would only do once or twice a year: Go to brunch. Who in the world thought it was a good idea to schedule the first meal of the day at 11:00? It had to be a thin person, who also didn’t know what it felt like to wake up with cotton-mouth and very low blood sugar. By the way, if you were thinking I was going to say “go to church” perhaps we need to spend some time defining “un-churched.”

However, since coming through the doors of Christianity I have begun to grasp, (as I have to imagine we might never do more than that) the significance of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and I have to imagine that if it truly is and offers all that it claims to, perhaps much like the Easter Egg hunt last year, there might be a direct correlation between the time spent in preparation and the joy we could experience in celebrating it with others.

Come join us at Fuel April 6th, 13th and 20th, for a three week series titled: Easter prep

Invest and Invite

D.R.
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This coming Wednesday, March 16th we will begin a new three week series titled: “A Pirate’s Life for Me”

What is it about pirates that absolutely captures our hearts and imaginations? I can’t begin to put a number on the hours I have spent playing “pirates” in my house. We have pirate hats, and flags, we have pirate ships, Lego pirates and pirate games – all one would need to conquer the seven seas.

However, long after we outgrow our pirate toys, I still think we are captivated by the romanticized version of pirates. Anyone see Pirates of the Caribbean? How about the second or third one?  Plans on seeing the next installment, “On Stranger Tides”?  Here is a link to the trailer.  Watch it and tell me something inside of you doesn’t come alive.

To be honest I think we are captivated by the idea of pirates, because of the total freedom, complete purpose, reckless abandon, and countless riches. It’s all upside in the pirate’s life, or at least that’s the parts we play.

I think that those are the parts that captivate us as adults as well. We want freedom, we want to live on purpose, we want to live with reckless abandon, all with the idea that somewhere somehow we will discover the buried treasure that has eluded everyone else..

Come join us on March 16th at 6:30am as we set sail on this three-week series.

~ D.R. Carlson