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Isn’t it crazy that we have a national holiday that celebrates the anniversary of a man being dead for 3 days and then coming back to life? What percentage of people give that more than just an afterthought? 10% 5%? 2%?

Whether Jesus was (is) God or not is a question for everyone to struggle with. To believe that He was God, and is God, takes some measure of faith, to be sure. To believe that a man named Jesus lived on this earth takes much less faith, we have quite a bit of historical writings that say that He did.

The resurrection? It’s somewhere in between, I guess, though much closer to the former than the latter. The historical writings say that it happened, but seeing that no other man in the history of earth has done it, it does take some faith to believe that He was dead for 3 days and then was alive again. Most people who believe that He did that, also believe that He is God, not just that God raised him from the dead.

But before I start to ramble, let me get back to my original point. On Sunday most folks will observe the fact that it is Easter, whether or not they believe that Jesus did in fact go from being dead to being alive. And even some of those that do believe, will not really care too much about it, and will just go about their day as they do every other day.

I’m not asking that we treat Easter as some special day when we should live differently because we remember that Jesus rose from the dead. I’m asking that we treat every day differently because we remember that Jesus rose from the dead. As a christian, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection should color everything we do and are - something I often fail to live out.

May your weekend, and the days that follow, be lived out with love and grace for those around you and for the God who wept, bled, and died so that we might be free to be ourselves. Not to hide our flaws and shame and protect our inadequacies, but to love and give and live knowing that those flaws have been accounted for by the one who was flawless.

May the cross and the empty grave remind of us who we are, who we are not, and who He is. And may it compel us to live accordingly.

Have a great Easter weekend, everyone!

* Coldplay’s new album will be titled “Viva la Vida”, which means “Long Live Life”. It will be out on June 17th! Huzzah! There are only a handful of bands that I will make a point to grab their CD on release day, and Coldplay is certainly one of them. My friend Jon and I were talking about which Coldplay album is out favorite the other day - he went with Rush of Blood and I went with X&Y. From the other side of the room, my buddy Than just mocked us both, and pretended to sing in a falsetto like Chris Martin. Hater.

* I went with 2 brackets this year for the NCAA Tourney. I’ve got one in my Prayers For Blowouts Facebook Group and another at work. I usually go with 1 and play the whole “integrity” card, but it sucks when your bracket is ruined by Day 3 of the tourney. Since I only have 10 bucks riding on my work one, and no money on my Facebook one, I was ok doing two. How many, if any, do you have going?

* Speaking of twos, I’m going to be in 2 Fantasy Baseball Leagues this year. A keeper league that is doing a complete redraft tomorrow night (really looking forward to that) and a Prayers For Blowouts head-2-head league that should be a lot of fun (drafting on Easter Sunday night). Few things are as fun to me as fantasy drafts, so this should be a fun weekend for that.

* Speaking of Fantasy Sports,  last night I spent a couple hours writing for the book. I was tackling a chapter on a new Fantasy game I am inventing called Fantasy Church. It might be the most ridiculous chapter in the book when all is said and done, but if I can pull it off, it might also be one of the funniest. We’ll see…

*  Lots of Buzz going around the blogs (and the world) about Obama’s speech on racism. I read the entire transcript and thought it was fantastic. Good job by him. Still no idea who I will vote for on November 4th, and I’m okay with that.

*  All new episode of LOST tonight. So this is the last one before there’s a break, right? That’s what I thought I had heard. Then the show comes back at the end of April for the last 5 episodes of Season 4. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

* Erica and I are going on a date tonight. woot. Probably hitting up Hibachi’s, our favorite Teppenyaki place, before catching a movie. It’s been a few weeks since our last date, so it will be great to get away. As I wrote over 5 years ago, my record at catching shrimp flung at me by Japanese chefs is near perfect.  At the time I was 12-13, and 5 years later, I still havent dropped one. I’m probably 24 for 25 at this point. Dang that rookie chef who ruined my perfect record. Hopefully, tonight I can keep the near-perfection going. I’ll report back tomorrow…

It’s raining here today. I’m not a huge fan. If a normal day can be graded on a scale of 1 to 10, i think rainy days have a ceiling of 9. No rainy day can go higher than a 9. Conversely, sunny days - like the guitar amp in Spinal Tap - can go up to 11. I love a good sunny day. With apologies to Donald Miller and Jordan Green, I don’t think I could live in the Northwest.

Someone asked me today if I would be using an umbrella when i walked to another building on our campus, but I said “No. Umbrellas are for women. And smart people. Therefore I’ll be getting wet.” And I did get wet, but that’s okay, because I’m a guy. A dumb guy, but a guy.

It reminds me of a short story we read in 8th grade English class about a family called The Saccharros. They avoided the rain like crazy, and one day they finally got caught outside in it and wouldn’t you know it…they melted. Turns out they were made of sugar. That story has always stuck with me, probably because it was a bit creepy. Often when people comment about getting caught in the rain, my response is, “well, it’s not like we’re made of sugar.” I have Mr. Burke to thank for that one.

Erica is giving me the evening to myself to spend a few hours writing, so I’m thankful and excited for that. The rain might not be the best thing for one’s mood, but some would probably say it has the opposite effect on one’s creativity. Guess we’ll find out…

I’m visiting with my friend Shirley this year. I do every year about this time.

Six years ago she really saved my tuckus when i tried to do our taxes by myself and submitted forms that i knew i had filled out wrong. That night I went in to H&R Block and Shirley helped me set things straight. I’ve been meeting with her every year since, and even though it costs me more to have her do it than to do it myself, you can’t put a value on peace of mind.

30 minutes after I walk in to her office, I walk out with my taxes done, and with the peaceof mind that comes from knowing they have been done right. And hopefully, I walk out with a nice little black number that says I’ll be getting some money back.

My friend Than laughed at me because he gets his taxes done the moment he has all his necessary docs in. What about you? Do you get them done as soon as possible, or are you still putting it off?