The Easter Urge
A minister was counseling a woman who was having marital problems. She asked, “Does your husband believe in life after death?” The woman replied, “Hah! He doesn’t even believe in life after supper!”
Too often, we are like that man and fail to make every effort physically, mentally and spiritually to prepare for a better life on earth! Many of us have succumbed to what Author Robert Ingersoll has wisely written: “We are living in a time of…..taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; higher incomes, but lower morals; more knowledge, but less wisdom; fancier houses, but broken homes. We have….conquered outer space, but not inner-space; learned to make a living, but not a life; added years to our life, but not life to our years. We….spend too recklessly; drive too fast; laugh too little; anger too quickly; stay up too late; get up too tired; read too little; watch TV too much; pray too seldom.”
If we relate to any of these conditions, the Easter season is an opportunity for us to resurrect our spiritual nature. The word resurrection has a Latin root which means to rise again or to appear. It is also defined as a coming back to life or a coming back into notice, practice, use. It also means restoration. The word urge means to stimulate or encourage – thus, the Easter urge is the opportunity to rise to the occasion of encouraging ourselves to restore our lives with real meaning and purpose.
And how do we restore meaning and purpose? We must practice the three “C’s” – commitment, cooperation and caring.
Author and business leader Fred Smith writes: “One of my treasured memories comes from a doughnut shop in a small town in Texas. There was a young farm couple sitting at the table next to mine. After finishing their doughnuts, he got up to pay the bill and I noticed she didn’t get up to follow him. But then he came back and stood in front of her. She put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her out of her chair and backed out the front door to the pick-up truck, with her hanging from his neck.
As he gently put her into the truck, everyone in the shop watched. No one said anything until a waitress remarked, almost reverently, “He took his vows seriously.” My friends, that’s the Easter Urge expressed as commitment!
How serious are you about your commitments in life? Are you able to rise up to something better than you have been doing – not only in your relationships, but could you do better in your commitment to your job, your community, or to your church? This is the season to question the what’s and why’s of every facet of your living – a sort of spring housecleaning, if you will!
The second “c”, cooperation, brings to mind the story of the two farms near Valleyview, Alberta, where one can find two parallel fences, only two feet apart, running for a half mile. Why are there two fences when one would do?
It’s because of the two farmers, Paul and Oscar, who had a disagreement that erupted into a feud. Paul wanted to build a fence between their land and split the cost, but Oscar was not willing to contribute. Since he wanted to keep cattle on his land, Paul built the fence anyway. After the fence was completed, Oscar said to Paul, “I see we have a fence.” Paul replied, “I got the property line surveyed and built the fence two feet into my land. That means some of my land is outside the fence. And if any of your cows sets foot on my land, I’ll shoot it.”
Oscar knew Paul wasn’t joking, so when he eventually decided to use the land adjoining Paul’s for pasture, he was forced to build another fence, two feet away.
Oscar and Paul are both gone now, but their double fence stands as a monument to the high price people pay for stubborness.
The Easter Urge calls us to cooperative living, which begets proactivity. Without partnership, we all lose in some way.
And the third “c” is about true caring. I often see this in the Intensive Care Unit at our local hospital where people who are gravely ill are housed. I have spent long hours in those rooms with anxious people listening to urgent questions: Will my husband make it? How can I live without my companion of forty years? Will my child walk again? It is in this room where all facades are dropped and every person pulls for everyone else.
The Easter Urge is the call from the Higher Self to live a committed life that is filled with cooperation and caring – the qualities that dissolve short tempers and narrow viewpoints – and definitely cause life after supper!
Feel free to read more from Dr. Carolyn McKeown:
The Cosmic Process Demands Flexibility!
Cross Out The Fiction And Rise Up and Roar!
God With Us
Flexibility -- The Cosmic Process
From Duality to Unity
