I am linking up for the Five Minute Friday. The FMF is hosted by Kate Motaung on her blog Heading Home. Today’s prompt is “Rise.” Write for five minutes; unedited.
I will admit that the minute I heard the word prompt, my mind was all over the place. In fact, at one point, my head was full of a mashup of three different songs: the hymn “Jesus Christ is Risen Today,” Matt Mahrer’s “Rise Up” and Shawn MacDonald’s “Rise.” Now try to make sense of all of that! And besides the mashed up tune in my head, I was reminded of the theme for the ELCA National Youth Gathering this summer “Rise Up.”
And as I contemplate this statement, I realize it is a word that we all should listen to and follow. We all need to learn that to ‘rise up’ means that we need to stop pursuing power or victory over another, but choosing weakness over power so that they might be together. When you weep, I will weep with you. When you rejoice, I will rejoice with you. When you are in the depths of death, I will sit with you. When you are afraid, I will remind you that you are not alone. Because together we are stronger than we are apart. Jesus calls us to ‘rise up’ together.
Jesus was the first one to show us what it means to ‘rise up’. Jesus died on the cross for us. But then after three days, he rose from the dead. The ultimate example of what it looks like when we ‘rise up’ together. We see that life not death has the final word! God has the ultimate power to overcome death. “Easter says you can put death in the grave, but it won’t stay there.” (Clarence W. Hall)
*I think of the words to the chorus to Shawn MacDonald’s song “Rise.” The chorus goes like this:
“Yes I will rise; Out of these ashes rise; From this trouble I have found; And this rubble on the ground; I will rise; Cause He Who is in me; Is greater than I will ever be; And I will rise.” Even in the most debilitating darkness, God rises up and shows us the light.
Because many times we will feel like we don’t have the power or the energy to rise up, but the truth is that God always has that power. God always will raise his Son from the dead. God always will have the ultimate power over death. God’s love always breaks into God’s kingdom here on earth.