Women of the Resurrection and the Ascension

They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” // Acts 1:11

The other day I was scrolling through Instagram and came upon a reel that read (and said),

“A lot of people feel they’re burned out because they are doing too much.

You’re doing too little of the things that make you feel alive;

you’re doing too little of the things that really matter.”

When I heard this, it was like a lightbulb went off in my heart and then my head. It forced me to pray about what it means to be people of resurrection who believe in Christ’s Resurrection from the dead and Ascension into Heaven. I've been living with the posture of my heart bearing a cross, not as a woman who believes in the Resurrection and ascension of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I know that all of us carry crosses, but Jesus didn’t stay on the cross. He was gently taken down, carefully bound in a tomb, rose from the dead, and forty days later ascended into Heaven. Do I live with this reality, this truth guiding my life? Or am I like the Apostles looking into the sky wondering where Jesus went? Wondering why He left me?

I think this is how the devil deceives us to carry crosses that were never meant for us instead of living as women fully alive with the singular target of Heaven as our mark. We burn out doing things that don’t bring us joy, don’t fulfill us, don’t really matter—aka living with the posture of the cross bearers.

This Easter season, I have chosen to start doing the things that make me feel alive, the things that really matter to me. I’m discovering the crosses don’t go away, but they have a greater purpose than before. Each cross makes me look at what I’m doing and ask the most important question: Lord, is this what will glorify You?

Ask yourself this today.

Jesus didn’t stay on the cross. // @socaltriciatClick to tweet

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