By Pastor Tim Eaton

Pastor-Tim-Eaton-Edgewater-Lutheren

My mother used to wake me every morning in a very chipper voice, “Rise and shine!”  Then she would open the drapes and the room would fill with blinding light.  I couldn’t stand it! (I wasn’t a morning person back then).  It seemed such a shame that a peaceful night’s sleep was so abruptly ended.

The only exception to my mother’s call to “rise and shine” was Saturday.  On Saturdays I would practically jump out of bed hours before anyone else, because it was my day to play!

Some of us struggle to get out of bed because it just feels so nice to be snuggled up in the sheets.  Even being awake isn’t the end of the world, as long as we can lay there and enjoy the comfort.

But there may also be days that getting up seems impossible, maybe it even sounds like a death sentence; we just want the world to go away.  As the pupils of our eyes contract and adjust to the piercing light, we sometimes get up because we have to.  And although we are up, we are not truly awake.  We go through the day – and even life – like a zombie.

If you are not one to rise and shine, you probably know the reasons why.  Is something weighing heavily upon your mind?  Was it a mistake for which you can’t forgive yourself?  Did someone wrong you and you can’t move forward.  Has a dream come to an end?  Have you suffered a loss which seems to have stopped time for you, but the world demands that you march on? Perhaps you can’t put your finger on a reason, but life seems to be missing “life” itself.

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you,” (Isaiah 60:1).

Your day to rise, shine and truly live is here.  Easter is a wonderful reason to rise!  Not only did Jesus rise from death to life on Easter morning, but His hope is for you arise as well.  Easter is a reason to rise from whatever is holding you down and shine again.

“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you,” (Ephesians 5:14).

Find your reasons to shine at Edgewater:  Good Friday Service, April 3, 7 p.m.; Easter Sunday “Rise” Service, April 5, 6:30 a.m.; “Shine” Services, April 5, 8 and 10 a.m. – all at Harada Elementary.

Edgewater Lutheran Church normally meets Sundays at 10 a.m., worshipping at Harada Elementary, 12884 Oakdale Street, Eastvale, CA, 92880; http://www.EdgewaterLutheran.org.