048: Battlefield

April 4, 2010
Matthew 28, Mark 16

I really like Jordin Spark’s song “Battlefield.” I definitely agree that love is a battlefield of sorts. Because we are selfish, sinful individuals, when we try to love – which is a divine thing, God is love! – we always end up messing it up in some way, either the giving or the receiving or the living out in general. If we aren’t battling with our beloved, due to our own selfishness and inability to humbly serve, then we’re battling with our natural instincts and desires in order to love them in a selfless, giving, serving way…

Today is one of my absolute favorite days of the year. I love Easter! I love the traditions my family has – breakfast at church, morning devotional, fellowshipping, Sunday School, Church service, more fellowshipping after, and a big family/friends dinner in the afternoon at my Grandmother’s house… I love people and particularly the people in my life. It’s such a delight to have a reason to spend all day hanging out with some of my favorites!

I also love how Easter seems to symbolize new beginnings. I love that it comes after Lent – I just recently became aware of how useful Lent can be, and how I appreciate it as a tool in my life – and it just seems to be a symbolic day reflecting the new life of Springtime bursting forth around me.

But mostly I love what Easter is for. I love what we focus on at Easter. I love the hymns we always sing, I love the focus on the resurrection and triumph of Jesus over death, and I love the unmistakable reality of the fact that Jesus lives and has a relationship with me!

Although “Battlefield” is certainly not a song that is really related to the idea of Easter for most people, I’d imagine, right now, in this season, I make that connection. I relate to “Battlefield’s” lyrics. But I love that I have hope beyond the hopeless love battlefields of this life. Instead, I have hope that someday, eventually, this battlefield of love will be a distant memory, and love as a peaceful, refreshing, comforting, secure, righteous and holy place of being will be the reality.

And I hope for and look forward to and wait for that day because of what Jesus did today some 2,000 years ago. He fought this battle of love, and He won. He triumphed over selfishness and sinfulness and pride and hate and bitterness and arrogance and deception and Satan and our punishment of death when his heart started beating and he began breathing again in the dark of the tomb.

As my tattoo reminds me, I (we) Esperer for future glory – the glory of our King and my Savior. In the meantime, even while I fight in this wretched battlefield of love and life, I know that my Redeemer lives and has won the war. Praise Him!