Take a nap, take a walk, take a pill, it's still there.
Blame it on anything or on nothing, it makes no difference. It's an indefinable sense that somehow we don't quite measure up. The feeling gnaws away at us and refuses to budge.
Peace is available . . . if we ask
Lasting peace and hope are as near as our breath, because everything changed that first Easter. That's when Jesus set things right between God and us.
Now all it costs us is believing the Good News of the Easter Gospel. We say something like, "Please forgive me, Lord, for my sins. I know I cannot live a perfect life, but I want to belong to you." We give him all our failures and mistakes and uncertainties.
Our loving Father answers, "What sins? My only Son paid your debt in full. My darling child, I love you."
It's as if God looks at us through one of those camera lenses that filters out the haze and sees his perfect Son.
The cross was God's way out for you and me
He sent his one and only son, Jesus, not just to live among us, but to suffer and be nailed to the cross and die. For you and me and all the world, because on our own we cannot meet God's standard for holiness.
Jesus died in our place, so we can live free from guilt and fear of punishment and hell.
As 2 Corinthians 5:21 states it: "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
On that Friday we call, "good," Roman soldiers nailed God's Son to the cross and let him hang until he died.
His grieving followers and family watched with aching hearts as Jesus died an agonizing death and then his lifeless body was laid in the tomb.
We had nothing coming but punishment, yet God's gift to us is forgiveness, with no strings attached.
Jesus didn't stay dead!
Every week our pastor always asks during the children's message, "Did Jesus stay dead?"
The kids fairly shout, "No! He rose! He came back, alive!"
Over a period of days Jesus appeared to his followers and friends several times. He called them by name and spoke with them. He ate with them and they touched him. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus told them, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Later, while he was blessing them he was taken up into heaven. Even so, Jesus is with us. His Spirit lives in the heart of every believer, every minute of every day.
Impossible? It would be if Jesus were merely a great human teacher, as he's often described. But he is true God, and we cannot explain God, the unexplainable.
The youngsters at our church know that. So when our pastor asks, "And where does Jesus live now?" they answer, "In my heart!"
One more question from the pastor always follows. "So what happens to us when we die?" The children answer, "We get to live with Jesus in Heaven!"
That's why we celebrate Easter.
We can swap anxiety for peace. For good.
Jesus living within us means we are never left alone to fear what comes next. Not even death, because we know that's not the end of our story, either.
It's only the beginning of the good stuff.
So take a deep breath and relax. Let yourself believe and feel the peace of being loved and accepted by God, without any ifs, ands or buts.
Now there's peace that lasts through whatever life may bring.
Easter Blessings, every day,
Lenore
Comments, please.
Note: You can read the eyewitness accounts of Jesus' last week on earth for yourself in the Bible. Turn to Matthew, chapter 21 to the end; Mark, chapter 11 to the end; Luke, chapter 19 to the end; John, chapter 12:12 to the end of the book.
