Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!
Christ is risen!
Alleluia! He is risen indeed!

The Easter Jack was two, his Sunday School teacher brought a huge bouquet of helium balloons and let each child choose one to take home. Jack chose red.

Proudly and joyfully, he carried his bobbing balloon down the church hallway to the Fellowship Hall, where Doug and I stopped to chat with our associate pastor, Steve, and his wife about our recent visit to Steve’s hometown.

A few minutes into our conversation, Jack let out a piercing wail. He had let go of his balloon, and it floated to the top of the Fellowship Hall, some 12 feet above our heads.

“Oh sweetie.” I picked Jack up as he began to sob. “That’s so sad.”

Steve said to Jack, “Hey, pal, don’t worry. I’ll go get a ladder. We’ll get it down.”

“No, please,” I said. “Please don’t. We believe in letting him experience the consequences of his actions.”

But Steve had already headed across the Fellowship Hall in search of a ladder. He turned around. “It’s Easter, Kimberlee. There are no consequences.”

I re-run this story every year at Easter. It’s my favorite anecdote in my book, one I keep coming back to because of the profundity and insight of Steve’s words.

How do we live in the reality of resurrection? Of no consequences? It’s mind-boggling, mind-blowing, bigger-than-enormous. No wonder Easter is 50 days long.

Again from my book:

What does it mean to live into the reality of Easter? I confess I don’t know. My suspicion, though, is that it looks a lot different from the way I usually live my life: a lot freer, bolder, more gracious and generous, and a lot less afraid.

It’ll take me 50 years to live into a reality that radical!

But this year, I’m taking one small step toward living in that crazy graced reality, choosing one small way to embrace Easter, to be radical and unafraid. I’ll tell you more about it on Friday. For now, I want to know:

What are you doing in the next seven weeks to allow resurrection reality to permeate your life?