What’s Easter Got to Do with It?

Prior to my surgery, a lot of my attention was focused on making sure things were set for my wife if surgery didn’t go well. We talked about “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” Perhaps surprisingly, her answer to that wasn’t my death. It was a pronouncement that I only had a few months to live. For her, my death would mean a lot of hard decisions had been bypassed but an ominous warning about weeks or months left meant many hard decisions would need to be dealt with.

For several weeks we talked about my funeral and related plans. We made sure our will and powers of attorney were in place. I talked briefly with my pastor about a funeral. When several of my friends and/or coworkers heard about these discussions, there was response was, “You’re going to be okay, Terry.” I think they were too concerned that I didn’t have a positive attitude and that would impact how I handled the actual surgery.

I understand many people don’t like to talk or even think about the death of someone they care about. It’s easier to act as though death isn’t a possibility, at least not any time soon. In fact, society in general has hidden death away.

Not long ago, nearly everyone died at home, surrounded by their family and things familiar to them. Now, a large percentage of deaths occur in hospitals or nursing homes. We don’t even like to say people die. They “pass on.” Or they’re “no longer with us.” Or “we lost them.”

We do all we can to not talk about, think about, or observe death. It’s no wonder people are uncomfortable with the idea.

So what does all this have to do with Easter or with the journey I’m on?

From the time I received my cancer diagnoses, I had a peace settle over me. There was no feeling of panic or frustration. No depression. No frantic action without direction. In fact, I even told some people God loves me so much He gave me two kinds of cancer. To this day I don’t know if I was serious or not when I said that.

But here’s what I know. Throughout the last few months, I’ve known beyond a shadow of a doubt that whatever happened was going to be good. If the cancer was dealt with and life went back to ‘normal,’ Good! If I died during surgery or from the cancer, Good! Either way, I trusted God to hold me in His hands just like He always has.

If I recovered, it meant more time with friends and family. It meant God had given me another chapter in the story He has been writing with my life. If I died, it meant my story had reached its end and I was with Christ. It’s the same idea proclaimed by Paul in Philippians 1:18-26.

That’s the promise of Easter. It’s the promise of the Resurrection. It has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with Christ.