Living Alive

By Michael Acock, Executive and Missions Pastor, Christian Fellowship

Have you wondered, “Why am I doing everything I am doing?” or, “Is my life going to make a difference?”  Where do those questions come from, and why do we care so much?

I find it staggering that these questions often come to me in moments when I’m living in the past or looking toward the future, which means I’m not actually living the moment I’m in. That’s what our lives become if we are not paying attention: a long string of moments we were not really present for because we were looking over our shoulder or dwelling on a “someday.”

Many of those moments are focused on destinations and things: places we could go on vacation or new things we could purchase. If we’re honest, our happiness is tied to those destinations and things. I have often discovered, however, that when I get to those future moments or acquire those things I dreamed of, happiness didn’t find me.

For me, Easter is about life and being alive. When you know that you’re alive and grateful for it, you will most likely find that you are happy. Just like darkness is described as the absence of light, death is the absence of life. Being alive in the moment might just be the key to really living.

Sometimes death teaches us to live. I have found that relationships and people define what living is all about when faced with death. I have a wonderful friend who is battling cancer. When I go to visit with her and her husband, we sit in the living room and engage the moment, whether that moment is laughing, weeping, or just being silent together; we are alive, living the moment. What if that concept defined depth and meaning and purpose for our lives?

Perhaps Easter is this powerful time of year in which both death and life should be considered. Life overcoming death — more than just overcoming physical death, but overcoming the death that each of us tastes when we squander the moment we’ve been given.

Easter is about Jesus establishing friendship between humanity and God and inviting us into a life with him and others that is full of meaning and purpose. I believe each of us has purpose. And that purpose, when truly lived in this very moment, enhances life for the people we have the privilege of being in relationship with.

How can you live in the moment today?