In the Tomb

Go back for a little while and remember the dreams you had for your life as a little girl. What did you imagine your life would look like? Who did you hope you would be? What grand goals did you promise yourself you would accomplish? 

Now look at your life today—in this very moment. Do the two pictures add up?  Probably not. What dreams have been shattered? What goals were swept away in the storms of the passing years? What image of yourself have you not lived up to? These are important questions to ask ourselves. If we want to live, and I mean really live, then we have to look life straight in the eye and embrace how short it has fallen from our expectations. Life has a way of wringing out our hearts like a wet rag. Time is often like an anchor dragging through the sand, etching the past into an unforgettable trail behind us. At least that’s how I feel a lot of the time. 

If we’re honest with ourselves, we will admit that life as we know it ain’t so swell most of the time. Even in those moments where everything feels good--you know, those moments when you look into your newborn baby’s eyes, say I Do, watch the stars come out at night, catch a glimpse of a butterfly taking flight, or sit beneath the shade of a giant oak tree, there is still a longing for more. Those moments don’t last. Security is so unstable. Pain is always lurking in the shadows.

Jesus offers us Life. But our disappointments rise out of unmet expectations. We want to be happy. The Life that Jesus offers isn’t necessarily happiness.  This is part of that life, but that’s not where it’s found. The Life Jesus gives just might be found in the last place we would think to look. Life is found in death. The bad news: Death isn’t fun. The good news: Jesus has the power to give us a resurrected life. Not a life that feels good all of the time. Not a life that always goes our way. I’m talking about real, lasting, does not change based on our circumstances, amazing, no turning back kind of Life. Life doesn’t show up on the mountain of happiness. Rather, we find it in the depths of our brokenness, the slime of our sinfulness, and the anguish of our hopelessness. Life is offered in exchange for a beat up, wrung out, soul-sick mess.

Lazarus found real life. Yet he found it in the most unexpected place: a tomb. It was in the midst of the darkness, the disappointment, the fear, and the hopelessness that Jesus offered him LIFE. He is offering it to you today.

John 11:25 (The Message)

You don't have to wait for the End. I am, right now, Resurrection and Life. The one who believes in me, even though he or she dies, will live.

Have you ever found yourself in a tomb?  Maybe you’re in one right now. Sometimes the circumstances of life encompass our hearts in the shroud of a grave. Other times we wrap ourselves in the darkness of our own sin and despair. Either way, we can’t escape the reality that there’s nothing worse than being buried alive. It’s in a tomb, however, that we realize what being alive actually means. For many of us, we think we’re alive, but in reality we’re walking around lifeless, unresponsive…as good as dead. 

“What’s the point,” we whisper to ourselves in the dark.  “Life is just one disappointment after another.” 

Have you ever felt like this? The tombs of life are the places we ask ourselves, and God, the questions that seem too dangerous out in the open. 

Jesus didn’t leave Lazarus in the tomb. He called his name, and his life was never the same.

John 11:43
Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”

What tomb are you hiding in today?

Shame…Failure…Rejection…Disappointment…Guilt…Fear…Depression…

Jesus is calling your name today. Come out of your tomb. Come out and live!