Quiet contemplation.

With most of my Christian colleagues still silent because of Lent (which I don't observe literally), I've kept talking on this blog, but decided to go contemplative today. Why Good Friday?

Gratefulness.

I'm not a peer-focused Christian (I could care less what man says is the right thing to do) because I focus on following God. (And I love saying it again, because it freaks out some Christians I still know.) Also, Christianity/religion doesn't hold a monopoly on rigid, legalistic Bible-thumpers who only know how to say "no"; I know a ton of those same kind of people who don't celebrate any religion at all.

My point is that I celebrate Good Friday and Easter not because everyone else expects me to, but because I yearn to. My relationship is a personal one with God. I don't talk about it much with others and I don't even attend church on a regular basis (for reasons that are beyond this conversation). My life is still healing from some big betrayals by religion. I still get angry, I still cry, and I still don't want to see certain people ever again in my lifetime.

But all that must never get in the way of gratefulness to Jesus Christ for what happened in Israel a long time ago--the reason I observe these holy days.

Even if one doesn't believe, one can still admire Jesus for the things he did while on this earth. And I do. I'm in awe of him.

But I'm also so very grateful for what I believe he did to save my life. He showed by his actions on a cross and rising from the dead out of a dark tomb that I could have hope in this world that makes no sense at all, and that things like a child needing surgery before the age of one year because of a cephalohematoma incurred by a traumatic birth are just as important to him as peace in Iraq, help for Darfur, or the lives of 15 British sailors.

You don't have to look too closely today, but is there something you're grateful for? Is there something that is weighing on your heart that you are so afraid of?

Christians observe Good Friday and Easter because of the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ, by his action and example and self-sacrifice, took responsibility for exactly those things.