We almost subtitled our current Crash series “Implementing the Resurrection”, instead of “Living the Resurrection”.  An odd choice of words, I know. But is that not the great struggle of the Resurrection? The great struggle of all great ideas? Implementation is hard.  Ask any great visionary, any great communicator.  You can talk about something, get applause, a standing ovation, and plenty of nods.  You can draw out plans, write books, teach seminars.  But when you have to move from theory to practice, from abstract to concrete, from imagination to reality – not everyone makes that transition well.

Implementing the Resurrection would mean that the Resurrection is now in play.  It is affecting our lives and through our lives, the world.   This whole series is really challenging me. And it has been incredibly hard to communicate because so much of my thoughts here are still in process.

But when I read this book by N.T. Wright, I really was “surprised by hope”.  There was so much hope rising up within me as I turned the pages, underlined sections, and made comments in the margin.  And I began to think, so what does resurrection implemented look like?  I began to see it in the lives of my friends.

-My friends Danny Ortega, Tony Elliot, Dave Cheatam, Justin Clark, and Sabra Gertsch who are in Zambia right now, training and empowering Northrise University students to capture and share the stories of hope and transformation in their country.

-My friend Ken and his work with tens of men and women through Alongside Ministry.  The power of resurrection is overwhelming in his life alone, but his work on the behalf of others paints resurrection for me every Sunday night.

-My friend Michael is being transformed right before my eyes.  Resurrection is making all thing new in him.  It’s a messy process and it has stops and starts and it is moving in ways I did not expect.  But the only explanation for the changes I see is resurrection.

-My wife’s work with girls in junior high and early high school.  Her work with women and children who have been battered and beat by boyfriends, husbands, fathers and uncles who claim to love them and care about them.  When she says, “you are worth more than this.  you do not deserve this.”

-My friend who had spiraled deep into grief and despair, who could only see his own pain and loss amidst so many of our conversations.  Out of that death, I see something new and green arising from that grave that is possibly greater than he had ever imagined or planned.  I see God resurrecting his life’s work.

I am still figuring out what implementing the resurrection means, but I do know that it has to be more than something we talk about one day a year.  And it means more than “sin less and go witness”.  The “so-what” moment for the most significant event in the history of the universe is not “minimize the bad stuff you do and go ask people if they know what will happen to their souls when they die.”

So, where do you see the Resurrection?