Rise to get light in your eyes first thing, that’s what all the experts say.
And I guess that makes sense – that the pupil always comes first, if you’re really going to be a student of living the kind of life of real worth, light to the eyes, like, as C.S. Lewis says, the seeing, the looking always comes first.
Rise and face the sun, rise and look for the light, rise like a flame, rise like a phoenix that everyone thought was only papery ash in the wind.
Rise through the resistance that whispers that today won’t be any different than yesterday, rise through all that feels impossible and heavy, rise though everyone would tell you to take a seat, rise because that is what seeds and the brave always do, rise because you were made to grow too.
The reality of the resurrection is more than some dogma on a page, it is now power in your veins.
Rise when everything in you would tell you that it’s too late, and even when it seems too late, because it’s never too late – doesn’t even the moon rise?
And won’t you be doing exactly this at the very end – your lungs will rise again, one more time, and your eyes will, right at the very last last, look up, look up – and, with your final breath, that’s what you will do one more time: Rise.
Because you’ve always been made for resurrection.
Because “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life…and He’ll do the same thing in you that He did in Jesus, bringing you alive” (Ro 8:11, ESV, MSG) – that’s what the Sacred Text says, that’s what the Spirit Book says, that is, itself, very much alive.
The day of our complete resurrection will be a good thing, but it will not be a new thing, because resurrection power is already raising us up right now, today, through the impossible things.
The reality of the resurrection is more than some dogma on a page, it is now power in your veins.
“Resurrection is not a consoling opium, soothing us with the promise of a better world in the hereafter. It is the energy for a rebirth of this life” (Jürgen Moltmann) Resurrection power is more than some theology; it is the daily reality of the Christian’s biology.
Which is to say: The same Spirit who will raise your body in the end is already at work in your body now, giving life to your body now, “mortif[ing] the relics of the flesh [now] , renew[ing] in us a celestial life” right now ( John Calvin). Your future resurrection is already beginning right now, because your very body’s already “fully animated by the Spirit of God” right now (NT Wright). You don’t have to do all the things now for Jesus – because Jesus is now doing all the things in you, with you, through you.
The day of our complete resurrection will be a good thing, but it will not be a new thing, because resurrection power is already raising us up right now, today, through the impossible things.
So you have to rise, and you will keep rising, because of the Divine Dynamite now within you: The One who raised the Son, now sends the Spirit, to rise up in you.
Rise, because you’ve always been destined for rising.
Your sins cannot keep you down, weigh you down, or tear you down, for Christ has paid for them, overthrown them, and raised you up in Him. Jesus “has met, fought, and beaten the King of Death. Everything is different because He has done so. This is the beginning of the New Creation: a new chapter in cosmic history has opened.” (C. S. Lewis)
Rise, because you’ve always been destined for rising.
You’ve always belonged to the tribe of the risers, people who never stop practicing rising, because we are the raised who apprentice resurrection, embody resurrection, keep living daily resurrection.
Practice Rising : Reads to Keep on Rising…
Especially Through Hard Things
Pages to practice rising…. pages that hold real hope & healing. Make space to apprentice daily resurrection. You were made to grow — flourish!
Dare to keep rising — to live abundantly! Do you have the whole collection? Find the full collection here — and embrace life — life to the full!
