Happy Easter!  It is still Easter, you know.  Once the decorations come down and the Easter dinner leftovers are finished, it can take an effort to remember that Easter is a season that lasts right up until Pentecost.

The question is: Are you living an Easter life?

Not to sound harsh or anything but if I were to venture an answer to that question on your behalf, I would say: Probably not.  I say that on my own behalf, too, by the way!  It is one of the oddities of the human condition that even people of faith cannot seem to escape: Despite Easter, we too easily fall back into Good Friday.

We don’t intend this, mind you.  We love Easter.  We believe it and we embrace the good news and the transformative power it brings.  It is just that, for some odd reason, we can’t seem to hold on to it.  Before long, the shadows and the cross come back to center stage for us.  What about my job?  What about my marriage?  What about my kids?  What about my health?  What about the headlines?  

Before we know it, it’s crucifixion Friday all over again.

Maybe that is why the phrase “spiritual discipline” has, for centuries, been associated with our faith.  It takes a certain discipline to hang on to the tenants of Christianity.  Even the good ones!  Like Easter!  

It takes discipline and practice to live the reality that Christ’s tomb is empty because we are, in every other aspect of our lives, conditioned to doubt it; to find the stone still rolled in place.  

It may be that the good news of Easter is just too much to take in.  The majesty of it, the layers of meaning are just too much for our small minds to comprehend.  Whatever the reason, we have trouble living from the truth that we are Easter people—resurrected people.

To help, try this.  It may sound simple but simple things often have power.  When it comes to spiritual disciplines, it is pretty common to utilize a mantra.  A mantra is a repeated phrase that you say to yourself over and over—especially when you need reminding of a higher truth.

So here is a mantra to keep you centered in the power of Easter especially when you feel yourself slipping back into a Good Friday mindset:

“The stone is rolled away.”

That simple phrase can bring you back to pivotal truth of our faith that the resurrection is not only real, but a working reality in your life.

“The stone is rolled away.”

It is an eternal truth.  It is your truth.