I confess, many days I feel stuck on that Saturday in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday — a kind of waiting and longing, wondering about how my journey brought me to this point, secretly hoping for new life. So, while I might not experience the unparalleled joy of Jesus’ resurrection constantly, today I remember — and stake my life upon — our risen King, the Resurrected One, the true life giver and dream awakener, the One who restores my heart, stirs my hope and says through His risen life that His kingdom has come, is here and is coming.

As a new chapter of life and ministry begins to unfold in the next couple of weeks, I am thankful for the wisdom of people like Eugene Peterson. In Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, Peterson writes about the kind of community I dream of and would love to be a part of and serve:

The gospel, while honoring our experience, doesn’t begin with our experience. We don’t begin a holy life by wanting a holy life, desiring to be good, fulfilled, complete, or wanting to be included in the grand scheme of things. We have been anticipated, and the way we have been anticipated is by resurrection, Jesus’ resurrection. Living a holy life, the Christian equivalent of revolution, begins with Jesus’ resurrection.

The resurrection of Jesus establishes the entire Christian life in the action of God by the Holy Spirit. The Christian life begins as a community that is gathered at the place of impossibility, the tomb.

Just as Jesus’ birth launches us into the creation and Jesus’ death launches us into history, Jesus’ resurrection launches us into living in community, the holy community — the community of the resurrection.