I am really excited for Avengers: Age of Ultron and The Force Awakens. I have been looking forward to both of these movies for quite some time, years in fact. With all of that build up, though, it’s easy to experience some amount of letdown. I think that both movies will be good and live up to the hype, but after I see them it’s like a balloon popping. Years of filling up those balloons and then…pop! It’s all over.
Easter is starting to feel like that for me.
I don’t know if Easter feels like that because I work at a church or if that feeling is independent of my employer. I do feel a little bit of a letdown, though, after Easter. There’s so much build up for our services and inviting people and celebrating the day that it often feels like a balloon popping once it’s over.
Just this past weekend I preached at our two Good Friday services, hung out with the people watching the tent we had set up for our Easter services, gave announcements during our Easter services, had lunch with my family and then dinner with Alycia’s family. It was a full Easter weekend and I enjoyed each part of it. However, by the time I got home on Sunday night I was done; I was Eastered out and my balloon had popped.
I had spent my entire Sunday celebrating the empty tomb, but on Monday I wasn’t even thinking about the empty tomb. My Easter balloon popped, I was low on energy and I felt a bit of a letdown. Monday was just another Monday and this week was just another week, full of its own tasks to be completed and problems to be solved.
Perhaps this letdown isn’t just an Easter problem but an every day problem. We always face the temptation of forgetting about the empty tomb. The empty tomb isn’t just a part of our reality on Easter, but it’s part of our reality every day. Too often, though, we focus too much on our to-do lists and our calendars, forgetting that Jesus walked out of his tomb as our resurrected Lord. If we forget that truth the week after Easter or any other week out of the year, we’ll probably experience some amount of letdown.
Easter is exciting; we celebrate the event that completely altered the entire universe. We can’t let that excitement lead to a letdown, though. Easter isn’t a balloon that we fill until it pops; it’s a reality that we should live out every day. The challenge is finding ways to keep what Jesus did on Easter fresh and new.
The good news is always good; we just need the right attitude to see it as such.
What keeps you excited about the empty tomb?
I can’t speak to the reasons for your experience. For me, when I left full-time pastoral ministry, Easter letdown became less of an issue, probably because the intense ramp-up to Easter was gone.
Remember: every Sunday is a little Easter!