Dr. Rich Bimler, ALOA Board of Directors
We are nearing the joy-filled celebration season of Easter! It’s been a tough journey for all of us, in different ways, but especially this year. Many of us are still “in shelter,” not equipped yet to get back to our old routines of living and being with people. I really do miss the hugs – how about you?
The reality of this Lenten and Easter season is to realize that we all are “wholly weak” when it comes to developing relationships with the Lord and His people. It has nothing to do with what we do or say and everything to do with what He has already done for us! It’s not about us – it’s all about Him! “Holy Week” is victorious over our “Wholly Weak”ness!
Author Eugene Peterson says it so well, “We wake into a world we didn’t make, and into a salvation we didn’t earn. Grace is underway before we even reach for the cornflakes!”
Watch and wonder how the Lord is at work in and through us. Remember the women at the tomb. “So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell the disciples.” (Matthew 28:8) . Perhaps we all are not able to “run” to tell, but we sure are able to walk or limp, talk and tell, love and forgive, heal and affirm, even though we too are at times “afraid, yet filled with joy”!
I must confess that at times I pray for an “Easier Life” rather than for an “Easter Life.” I may say, “Lord, can’t you heal my friend, make things happier, make people love and speak well of each other?” And God does…in His own way.
He does it by changing the “I” in EASIER to a “T” in EASTER! All the “I”s of our lives are replaced by the “T” of the Cross!
Thanks, Lord, for making our lives EASTER lives! Help others to see EASTER through us! “Wholly Weak?” No way! Each day of each week is indeed a HOLY WEEK, in the Resurrected One!
Take a look at previous posts for more inspiration for older adult ministry.