What If You Could Start Again? On the Miracle of Easter

A fresh start.

A new beginning.

New life.

Each spring we look around and see the signs of new life all around us. Yet, why are so many of us living in what feels like a perpetual winter? Rushing from one appointment to the next, but feeling behind. Giving our best effort, yet falling short. Feeling frustrated, discouraged and stressed. Surrounded by people but feeling alone.

It can feel like we are all living the same life of Bill Murray's character in the 1993 movie, Groundhog Day. No matter how many small changes we might make, it is the same alarm clock waking us to the same day. Sure, it might be Tuesday instead of Wednesday, but it eventually plays out the same, day after day. We wake up to try to make this day different. Better. Meaningful. Weeks turn into years, and we wake up one day, realizing that we are stuck. Frozen in a perpetual winter, no matter the season. We realize that it feels as if we are frozen, brittle down to our very souls.

Are you craving something more? Something deeper? A greater purpose? We all crave something new when we wake to realize the comatose state in which we have lived so long.

What if you could start again?

A fresh start.

A new beginning.

New life.

That is what Easter is all about. It is the whisper in the winter reminding us that spring is coming. It's that one warming breeze amid the snow, bringing a new change of season. What was dead can live again. God is up to something new … something fresh. In us. Through us. And nothing, no one, is beyond this grace. This love.

This Easter, what if you fully embraced a new chance to make a difference? Entertained the thought, just for a moment, that God CAN begin anew in you! Through you. And one morning, you awaken and instead of seeing the same dead branches, you see a small green bud. Life.

This is not simply some lofty goal. It is achievable. You don't have to do it alone because God desires to help you defrost your life and work to bring the warmth of love and grace all over this world. This will not happen overnight. There is no microwave setting to defrost, but God created us to live a new life and to live it abundantly.

Why? Why would God give such grace? YOU. You are why God gives such amazing grace.

Believe that a new beginning is possible. Today.

That's the miracle of Easter.

D.G. Hollums is the Minister of Online Engagement for Rethink Church. He is a pastor in the United Methodist Church and has a passion for developing community and relationships through social media and face to face dialogue. When he is not creating and curating content he can be found experimenting with contemplative photography or teaching his family how to appreciate good quality pop culture. Learn more about where he works at RethinkChurch.org.