Sunday, March 30, 2025
“Defeat the Ghost of Easter Past”
If you’re reading this early in the morning, you might think that you’re seeing something wrong. No worries: You are correct. Today’s Challenge for Lent is to Defeat the Ghost of Easter Past.
So, assuming that most people recognize the Ghost of Christmas Past from Charles Dickens’s 1843 novel, “A Christmas Carol”, today’s Challenge is along the same lines. However, instead of the ghost carrying us back to review our past, we’re going to do it ourselves by committing to move forward, past the pains of the past.
Our previous pains, mistakes, and regrets are powerful restraints that can prohibit us from moving forward. The issue with them is not that they are hurtful. Instead, our problems arise because we are unable to let them go.
Our pains and sufferings are real enough. They are also valid, regardless of our age or context. The fear caused by them was bad enough, and many of us are still haunted by those fears.
Today’s Lenten Challenge is to Defeat the Ghost of Easter Past. Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross and the resurrection that follows accomplishes many things on our behalf. One of them is that we don’t have to allow ourselves to be prisoners forever. We are promised a perfect life after this one, but we are also promised that this life can be much better as we allow God the opportunity to heal us so that we can experience lives of hope, joy, and love.
What is your ghost? What haunts me? Today’s Lenten Challenge is to kick them to the curb and burn rubber, leaving nothing but a plume of smoke and lessons learned for another day.
“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:13-14, NLT)
