More Than Bunnies Keep Going and Going and Going

If you're still seeking Jesus, and I hope you are, where are you looking? Are you looking in the same old places? What would it take for you to venture into some new places? And while we're talking about if you're looking, and where you might be looking, let's also be thinking about how you'd go about recognizing Jesus if you saw him! [Don't forget, too, that a good many holy people say when you're looking for Jesus, Jesus always finds you first.]

An angel is quoted as asking Jesus’ dearest friends, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" Taking a cue from that, besides not hanging out in cemeteries, we might consider that our old hang-outs, even when we've met God there before, may not be the only or the best places for us to be seeing the Jesus who wants to be meeting us today.

That's right. Jesus wants to meet us today. Jesus' resurrection not only means Jesus is alive, it means God is on the loose. Think about it. When Jesus showed up immediately after the resurrection, he was disguised, variously, as someone doing the gardening, a religious pilgrim dining in a hotel, then as a beach front chef cooking breakfast for his friends. Sounds like God on the loose to me!

The point is, most of the verbs in this piece end in "-ing." And we all learned that "-ing" words mean, “this keeps going on.” We keep looking. Jesus keeps walking. We keep seeking. Jesus keeps showing up. We keep heading back home. Jesus keeps saying, "There's a place up ahead where we can eat some good food and share a good Word." We keep heading back empty handed. Jesus keeps preparing meals we didn't plan on eating, in places we hadn't planned on visiting.

Here at First Trinity we live in and under a few other "-ing" words. Our vision statement begins with the word, "Sharin’.” What an odd word to give focus to an organization in this get and keep all you can world! Because there's plenty of what we're sharing, more than any of us has need of, we can walk confidently in the rest of the "-ing" words we value here as we keep following Jesus: inviting; welcoming; discipling; nurturing; healing; and, rejoicing.

When these attitudes keep moving from our hearts into our hands and feet, there's simply no telling what disguise we'll see Jesus wear-ing each day.