How do you prepare for Easter?

Mardi Gras! Carnival! Pancake Tuesday! All the preLenten celebrations are over and according to the church calendar we are into Lent, the season of prayer and fasting as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection.

All of this seems to be sliding by pretty quietly here in Pictou County. We appear to be more focused on the coming spring, March Break from school and the many other things of our everyday life.

Perhaps Easter is only about the holiday and the chocolate bunnies. We almost seem oblivious to the world-changing impact of the death and resurrection of Jesus.

So what about you? What will you do between now and Easter to prepare spirit, mind and soul for the celebration of Jesus’ death and resurrection? Being my first Easter season in Pictou County, I am really curious about the answers I would find to this question.

Because I moved here to be part of a local church my Easter week is already planned for me and is pretty full but I still have the option to decide how I will prepare. So what are my plans to prepare for this Easter season? Let me share with you.

Easter cards and chocolate for the family are on the list. After all I am shaped by the culture I’ve grown up in. Easter chocolate is a part of that picture even if the children have outgrown the egg hunts.

I also want to spend the next four weeks looking at some of Jesus’ last night with his disciples. I will read a little of the Gospel of John (one of the Jesus biographies) each day. In chapters 13 through 17 it records some of the important things Jesus said on that last night. Things like, “Love one another as I have loved you.” (13:34), “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (14:6), “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes your joy will overflow” (15:11). If His Gospel is true then there are powerful lessons for life in the verses that share His last teachings. I believe it is true and focusing on these verses will help me prepare for a busy Holy Week.

Then there is Holy Week! It will be a week full of events to focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

At First Baptist, we will have “20 Minutes at the Foot of the Cross” noon time reflections each day from Monday through Thursday.

I’ll take in the Maundy Thursday service at Second Baptist. I look forward to sitting in this service and worshipping without responsibility.

Friday I will be the narrator for the two Good Friday performances of the musical drama “BELIEVE” (written and directed by George Henaut).

This will all be finished off by our Sunday Morning Resurrection Service. I hope you find a way to prepare well for Easter. If you don’t have a church home, feel free to join us at First Baptist.