Ordinary Time 
Pause
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who was imprisoned for fighting against the Nazi regime, wrote in a letter from prison:
It is “through the resurrection of Christ that a new and purifying wind can blow through our present world …
If a few people really believed that and acted on it in their daily lives, a great deal would be changed. To live in the light of the resurrection — that is what Easter means.”
That wind of resurrection is blowing through our world — can you feel it?
Listen
“His name itself has made this man strong. That is, because of faith in Jesus’ name, God has strengthened this man whom you see and know. The faith that comes through Jesus gave him complete health right before your eyes.
“Brothers and sisters, I know you acted in ignorance. So did your rulers. But this is how God fulfilled what he foretold through all the prophets: that his Christ would suffer. Change your hearts and lives! Turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away.”
Acts 3:16-19
Think
After healing a man outside the temple, Peter tells a crowd of onlookers, “Change your hearts and lives! Turn back to God so that your sins may be wiped away.”
Peter’s response captures both aspects of responding to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we truly grasp the meaning of the resurrection, we are motivated to change both our hearts and our lives. The former means changing our mindset, and the way we understand the world; the latter involves concrete changes to how we act and respond in the world.
Are you able to identify specific ways that the resurrection causes you to think and act differently? Are you able to encounter the world without fear because fear has been defeated? Can you live with boldness because you are being raised to new life? Does the resurrection give you an extra dose of joy or love or peace to share with your world? Take a moment to think about how the reality of resurrection will change how you think and what you do today.
Andrew Garnett
Pray
God, I know that the resurrection has changed everything. Let it change my heart and my life this day and every day. Amen.
Go
As one who has been raised with Christ, go today to witness the resurrection of your own life.
