Jeff Noble - "Notes from the Trail"

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The Easter Room

www.jeffnoble.net

The Easter Room

Jeff Noble
Apr 3, 2015
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The Easter Room

www.jeffnoble.net

Whatever your religious or spiritual background, this weekend is significant for a large proportion of the world's population - past and present. We Christians will reflect and celebrate on what we consider as the epic history-shattering and creation-resetting event: Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection.

The stream of content that now inundates your Facebook and Twitter feeds is as varied as there are Christians. You'll see embarrassing triviality. You may read a few provocative comments that make you pause. Depending on how hard-wired you are to resist, you may choose to belittle; others will be bewildered.

Another year, another Easter. What's all the fuss about?

May I encourage and even urge you to simply withhold opinion and refrain from comment? Could you be gracious (even if Christians have not been gracious to you) and try to step into this big room of religious fervor for just a moment. Let's call it the Easter Room. You don't have to be the center of attention. Just grab your drink of choice, and sit on a chair near the door (so you can leave when you'd like). And just watch. Listen. Think.

  • What's it all about?

  • Why does it matter?

  • Is Jesus really a myth?

  • Why don't I get it?

  • What bothers me so much?

  • Are my objections legit?

As you're sitting there, checking Facebook and reading Twitter (and maybe playing your favorite game app), you'll hear snippets of conversation from Christians sharing earnestly, and sometimes tearfully, about how Jesus has saved them. Their sincerity and parts of their story may intrigue you. When you get up for a refill of your drink, you may overhear another story that sounds remarkably... just like yours. You'll stop to listen, trying hard not to be seen as a creeper.

As you make your way back to your seat, you find yourself strangely moved by the story you've overheard. These are real people, you may find yourself thinking. You may not like all of us. You wouldn't choose many of us as friends. But something real is here. And because you've taken just a moment to step into this Easter room, you're now open again. Open to listen. Open to examine. Open to perhaps, for the first time, to begin something.

May this Easter provoke in you a new beginning.

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The Easter Room

www.jeffnoble.net
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