Halfway. Half-baked. Half-hearted.
(My father had a different word for it but I can’t say that here)
It’s meant to be a curse, a slam, a put-down. Halfway. Not good enough, bad effort, partial, mediocre, lazy. Halfway means trying, somewhat, but never getting there. And there are no rewards for doing half a job, for writing half a book, for running halfway down the field or up the baseline. There are no points for getting close to the basket, for almost making a goal.
No one wants less than the complete, full meal deal. No one want to pay for a job half done, you don’t sit on half a chair or paint half a house or plant half a lawn, you don’t buy half the groceries you need every week, you don’t want your car fixed halfway.
Halfway is really not good enough for us.
So why is it that we are so often halfway people when it comes to our faith? We bring our Lord a halfway passion, a halfway commitment, part of our time, some of our tithe. We serve halfway; you know, when we can, when there’s nothing better to do or nothing better on the TV. We want our church to grow, we want the gospel spread, but when it comes to inviting someone to church our efforts are halfway at best.
And the real loss is deep in our hearts, where our trust hangs halfway in the balance between hope and despair. We have a medium grip on our faith; it’s there, but not too much so, and one good challenge, one wrong temptation, one great hurt or one overwhelming loss casts us into the abyss or breaks us forever.
How can we survive only halfway saved?
Maybe the problem is that we experienced a halfway salvation. We suffered through Holy Week, we heard the Easter story, we sang the hymns and chased after the hidden eggs. We were told that HE WAS RAISED and we were thinking how great that would be. No more sin. No more evil. No more death. But then Monday came and the world seemed just the same as it had been before. Still full of sadness and sorrow and brokenness. Heaven, it turns out, is still far off, distant in some unknown future for us, and we remain, for the time being, only halfway there.
But there is nothing halfway about Resurrection. Nothing halfway about the promise. The tomb is all empty, he is completely alive, fully raised, wholly new. This is a brand new day, and the only “halfway” now is us, our foot-dragging, stubborn, moping, slothful selves clinging to the tombs of our lives like teenagers to their beds on a slow, Saturday morning.
He is fully alive! Why would we want to stay halfway dead? Isn’t it time to stop dipping our toes and dive fully into life, to give up the tasting and commence with the feasting, to quit pretending that we believe and trust and hope and start living like we do?
Easter, if only a day once a year, is never Easter. Resurrection is not life until it is lived, hope is not hope until it is tested, faith is not faith until it believes with every breath and touch and word. Let us stretch out our whole selves into this new being and be, really be, completely be, fully be, brand new.
This is our day, that the Lord has made just for us. And he made it all.
He is Risen – He is Risen Indeed!
(My father had a different word for it but I can’t say that here)
It’s meant to be a curse, a slam, a put-down. Halfway. Not good enough, bad effort, partial, mediocre, lazy. Halfway means trying, somewhat, but never getting there. And there are no rewards for doing half a job, for writing half a book, for running halfway down the field or up the baseline. There are no points for getting close to the basket, for almost making a goal.
No one wants less than the complete, full meal deal. No one want to pay for a job half done, you don’t sit on half a chair or paint half a house or plant half a lawn, you don’t buy half the groceries you need every week, you don’t want your car fixed halfway.
Halfway is really not good enough for us.
So why is it that we are so often halfway people when it comes to our faith? We bring our Lord a halfway passion, a halfway commitment, part of our time, some of our tithe. We serve halfway; you know, when we can, when there’s nothing better to do or nothing better on the TV. We want our church to grow, we want the gospel spread, but when it comes to inviting someone to church our efforts are halfway at best.
And the real loss is deep in our hearts, where our trust hangs halfway in the balance between hope and despair. We have a medium grip on our faith; it’s there, but not too much so, and one good challenge, one wrong temptation, one great hurt or one overwhelming loss casts us into the abyss or breaks us forever.
How can we survive only halfway saved?
Maybe the problem is that we experienced a halfway salvation. We suffered through Holy Week, we heard the Easter story, we sang the hymns and chased after the hidden eggs. We were told that HE WAS RAISED and we were thinking how great that would be. No more sin. No more evil. No more death. But then Monday came and the world seemed just the same as it had been before. Still full of sadness and sorrow and brokenness. Heaven, it turns out, is still far off, distant in some unknown future for us, and we remain, for the time being, only halfway there.
But there is nothing halfway about Resurrection. Nothing halfway about the promise. The tomb is all empty, he is completely alive, fully raised, wholly new. This is a brand new day, and the only “halfway” now is us, our foot-dragging, stubborn, moping, slothful selves clinging to the tombs of our lives like teenagers to their beds on a slow, Saturday morning.
He is fully alive! Why would we want to stay halfway dead? Isn’t it time to stop dipping our toes and dive fully into life, to give up the tasting and commence with the feasting, to quit pretending that we believe and trust and hope and start living like we do?
Easter, if only a day once a year, is never Easter. Resurrection is not life until it is lived, hope is not hope until it is tested, faith is not faith until it believes with every breath and touch and word. Let us stretch out our whole selves into this new being and be, really be, completely be, fully be, brand new.
This is our day, that the Lord has made just for us. And he made it all.
He is Risen – He is Risen Indeed!
