What does resurrection mean to you?

On Easter Sunday (yes, a few weeks ago now), we were asked if we wanted to share a little something about what Easter means to us.

Easter for me is about death and resurrection.

I didn't prepare anything. I didn't expect to have anything to say, but when the moment came, I was compelled to share a few words.

Through tears and trembling, I said something like:

Resurrection and Easter is about:

Hope where there was none

Peace when their is none

Life where their is none

Grace where their is none

Wholeness where their is none

Strength where their is none

Forgiveness where their is none

How about you?

PS: I love this little video about resurrection.

Vote. Again.

Last year, I was on the cusp of becoming all politically focussed and all that.

While I've always had an interest in politics (thank you Mrs Smith and Modern Studies), I get fed up with hyperbole. Ironic, innit?

I cast my vote through the medium of Royal Mail this year, first time and all that. It was with a little trepidation that I clicked on the link from Gareth that pointed towards the Scottish Vote Compass, answered a few questions and BOOM. I saw my political preferences summarised in a couple of tasty charts.

While some (I'm looking at you Mike McQuaid) may contest the viability of such a short set of issue-related questions being enough to state political preference with complete infallibility, it's a nice wee bit of fun and got me thinking about the issues.

So much of the coverage (other than Brian's excellent blog) has been about the leaders and their charisma. Or lack of it.

Here's my results.

How they related to my ballot papers I won't say.

But it was interesting nonetheless.

Especially given that the pdf downloaded from the site contained a different (and less engaging) chart:

And also this:

I like that the star indicating where I am on the economic & social circle is almost dead centre. Kinda says "come and get me, candidates, I'm a moderate...".

Where did you end up?

we don't have a clue what's going on.

The future. The undiscovered country. "Next".

As I read it today, I loved this cartoon on the XKCD: Future Timeline. It's an image showing top-ranked Google search results of predictions/claims for each year until 2101. I won't post the image here as it's *way* too big.

If we're honest, we're all control freaks - to a greater or lesser extent. I've come to this conclusion in recent days after conversations with loads of people. More often than not we want to be in charge. That might be through simply understanding what is happening, or by literally being in control of what is going on. I know I am guilty of this a lot of the time.

But what struck me as I chuckled through Future Timeline was that we really have no idea what's next.

Sure, we knew there was a lot of fuss being made about a wedding last week. We knew that there was a sunrise and a sunset. But we didn't really expect to see news reports like this, this or this.

I guess during the last few weeks, it's been all too apparent what it means to have faith. To trust that God is good and that his Love (and Mercy) endures forever. To believe that He is able to do things in and through us that we just can't do on our own. Like cope. Or overcome. Or keep walking. Or stand when there's nothing left to stand on.

And faith comes through hearing. What I hear impacts what I believe. For sure. But I'm not blindly following, but humbly listening for the voice of the Father. He speaks. Often I'm not listening. Often I'm too caught up in what might be, what needs to be done, what seems to be important. This turtle cartoon speaks right to the heart of that. If I loose a file on a computer, is it really that important?

Maybe tomorrow we can walk on water. Who knows. I'm not worrying about it. Because that won't change a thing.

As a friend once said; "every breath is mercy".

Keep breathing.