The summer sun warmed our car as we waited at the car repair shop. We had turned in our van, and my wife had run inside to see if it was ready yet.
"Dad?" came the small voice from the back seat. It was my four year old. "You have to buckle my seat belt again!"
"WHAT? Why?"
I turned around to confirm what he had said. It was true. Now, this particular buckle was manufactured by an evil person, because I could not do it from my front seat. It would require me to climb out of my seat, open the door, lean over my other son, and buckle the seat belt. I would have to stand in the hot sun!
The anger rising inside me, I threw open the door, yellin...I mean, speaking very loudly, "FISCHER! WHY is it that one minute you can be SO sweet, and the next you are being SO NAUGHTY!!!!"

The next millisecond slowed to an eternity, my words ringing in my head: "WHY is it that one minute you can be SO sweet, and the next you are being SO NAUGHTY!"

I imagine God laughed during my moment of self-realization.

"Well," I thought, "he IS MY son! Here I am calm one moment, and yelling the next! I'm pretty sure God would love to say this to me...over and over again!"

Kinda reminds me of this passage in Romans 7:
15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Freaking Out!!

I imagine the disciples of Jesus were really FREAKING OUT right about this time of the day (a couple thousand years ago.)
Mary had run to Peter and John (first thing earlier that morning) and, breathless, blurted to them that the tombstone had been rolled away. They had followed her and verified that, indeed, the stone had been removed and the body was not there.
Peter and John went home, but Mary SAW Jesus.
I imagine it was later in the day, perhaps around supper time, that the disciples were together...probably getting ready to eat a meal together. I imagine they were spooked, because they had been announcing the arrival of the Messiah, and now he was dead. I imagine they were extremely sad, because their friend, mentor, Lord, and traveling companion was gone. I imagine they were coming up with conspiracy theories as to who had stolen the body. I imagine they were afraid for their lives, as they had been the leaders of a new religious movement, but their movement was not stalled.

All that changed in a second.

ALL OF A SUDDEN, there He was calming their fears and their pain. "Peace be with you!"

I honestly can't imagine how I would have reacted. Cry? Laugh nervously? Faint? Hug Him? Refrain from hugging with uncertainty? Touched Him to make sure He was real?

But, that was a changing moment for those men. They changed the world starting at that moment. They all died for Jesus, so they must have believed that His resurrection was absolutely real.
And they had no concept that this would be the first of many celebrations about the resurrection!

Jesus CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD on this day about 2,000 years ago. I AM FREAKING OUT ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW. IT'S THE MOST AMAZING STORY EVER!

Lazarus' View on the Resurrection of Jesus

Well, I really can't say much about the resurrection of Jesus...but, I CAN tell you about my own resurrection experience!
I was dead...totally, completely, in-the-ground, dead for four days.

My sisters tell me that when my good friend Jesus heard, he came. He was a little late, but he still came. He talked to my sister about resurrection. Spooky stuff, right?

He told some folks to roll the stone away from my grave. They objected at first. "He'll stink by now!"

All I can say is this: The first voice I remember hearing was that of Jesus. He told me to come out of my grave. I had a burial cloth on my face, and linen wrapped around my body, so I just got up and followed the voice as best I could. Soon, friends were taking off my burial clothes and replacing them with the clothes of the living.

I will die again one day.

But this time, I'm not scared. I'm not scared because I KNOW the first voice I'll hear after I "fall asleep" is that of Jesus. And, like last time, he will tell me to get up and leave my grave.
He raised me from the dead, and later on, he raised himself.

One day, His will be the first voice YOU will hear, if you believe...

Awesome Youth Group Parents

Recently, a parent came to my office to share some concerns. First of all, this person wasn't belligerent or rude. He brought some concerns before me, and let me just say, I could listen to his complaints/critiques ALL DAY! I respect people who can help you examine yourself without feeling belittled.
One of the things I was told is that we were doing TOO much in our youth ministry! As we spoke, I realized that I have a major problem. Our teens LOVE being together (a good thing), but I have a problem saying "No" when they want to hang out. I've been saying "Yes" to too many things over the past 4-5 months.
I always tell the teens they don't need me to hang out, but somehow I've been sucked back in. Probably because I love them so much!
But every once in a while, it's a TRUE BLESSING to have a parent tell you that you're doing too much, and that "It's OK to say NO!"