Good Friday came and went, and so did I—or so I felt.  I could write for weeks now, just on everything this weekend that postponed my writing.

I would say a loaded life has more meaning than a placid one.  Yet we all seem to desire and strive for smooth sailing.

Good Friday, Saturday, and Easter Sunday.

What an ordeal it was for Jesus.

What a deal it is for us.

When you start thinking of God working things together for good, that aren’t good, you can go on and on with examples and lessons, including stuff that still doesn’t make sense.

If we love God, we are eligible for promises that make all the difference in the challenges, trials, and tragedies of this life.

But the promise that I’m thinking of goes even farther concerning eligibility—

If we love God, and are called . . .

That’s telling me that we are not in charge of our destiny, or responsible for making all the details of life fit together.  “Called” means taken out of the mainstream of humanity without permanent meaning, to something higher.

Then there is more to the promise—

If we love God, and are called according to His purpose.

You see, when we try to force meaning into our lives by ourselves, we are never totally successful.  We achieve some goals, but some questions remain—about good and bad, about God and us, about life and death, about “then what?”

Jesus went through everything we do, and more—including pain and injustice and the ultimate questions “Why?” and “If . . .”

He knew the end from the beginning, but that didn’t make it easy.

So why did He do it?  Why did God arrange it?

So we don’t have to.

“Life [all of it] is worth the living,

Just because He lives.”

“And we know that all things work together for good, to them that love God, who are called according to His purpose.”

Truth may be disputed, but it cannot be refuted.

The Roman Governor, Pilate, asked Jesus, “What is truth?”

Good question.

Pilate did not have the answer.

The answer was standing in front of him.

Jesus had already said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”

Not only did Jesus create everything.

Not only does Jesus own everything.

Jesus is everything—the Way, the Truth, the Life.

Then He said, “No one comes to the Father except by Me.”

And that is how we get everything, including the Truth.

JESUS = TRUTH

Don’t try to refute it.

Don’t try to debate it.

Don’t try to invent it.

Don’t ignore it.

Accept it.

Accept Him.

Parents?

Siblings?

Elders?

Peers?

Posterity?

Employers?

Spouse?

Church Leaders?

Readers?

God?

Yourself?

In my lifetime I’ve tried to impress all of the above.  I suppose each has its time and place for us to please.  Then, we find that pleasing others is not as fulfilling as expected.  Even pleasing ourselves does not satisfy.

Surely trying to impress God is right.  Well, the truth is that we can’t impress Him—at least not favorably.  People through all history have tried, doing every imaginable thing to please the gods of their imagination.  It doesn’t do a bit of good.

The brightest spot in all human history is that the true God did something about this for us.  He did the pleasing—He did the impressing—so we don’t have to.  Now we can be free to please Him because we want to, not because we have to.

We weren’t fit to please God, so Jesus pleased Him for us while He was here on earth.  When the job of pleasing God for us was done, He said, “It is finished.”  He defeated death for us, came back to life, and went back to heaven.

He gives us power—He gives us His Spirit—He gives us the choice to accept His finished work—He gives us abundant life—and He is pleased with us.  And that is how we impress God.  And that is how we are free to serve others, not impress them.

This weekend, starting today, and the next three days, will you remember what Jesus did for you, and accept it, and invite Jesus into your heart and in charge of your life?

Wouldn’t it be great to please God for the first time?

Now that would be impressive!