How to Courageously Celebrate Easter (with Cracked Voices and Hallelujah-Hands)

This week feels both heavy and light, like oil and vinegar sloshing around in my heart. Like the pain of being seen and misunderstood at the same time.

Easter is a courageous celebration. Joy that raises hallelujah-hands when the pain is still raw. Kneels in awe when everything else is rushing by.

Jesus said yes to all of it—betrayal, denial, torture, separation—knowing full well what it required, and doesn’t that make your heart brim over with gratitude?

He is the light in the agonizing night. The hope-holder and heart-healer. The one worth every hosanna.

I don’t know what’s pressing that spot on your back and making you feel defeated. Unanswered questions, something you can’t take back, words you can’t unhear? But maybe the clearest answer God gives through Easter is to praise Him anyways.

Not after. But now.

Worship leads to wisdom

There’s an interesting correlation between praising God and finding answers I recently discovered while reading the book of Proverbs.

The starting point for acquiring wisdom is to be consumed with awe as you worship Jehovah-God. To receive the revelation of the Holy One, you must come to the one who has living-understanding.

Proverbs 9:10 TPT

We lay bare our hearts and sing God’s praise in the muddy and jagged places, and He meets us. With grace. Wisdom. And more of Himself.

“Consumed with awe” is not reserved for the seasons when life makes sense. I wonder if it’s especially for the times we feel most broken. When we have the most reason to complain, defend, or give in.

Choose to worship then—on Good Fridays and the days the questions leave you undone—and He’ll lead you to the light. And others to Him through His light inside of you.

The unshakeable truth is that God doesn’t play hide-and-seek. He literally cannot give an empty promise. When He says, “Come to Me and I’ll reveal Myself to you,” He means every single word.

God is Life and He is Living-Understanding. The wisdom that will make sense of your loss and your longing—it’s Him. Only Him.

Another Easter picture

Proverbs was written by King Solomon, arguably one of the wisest men to ever live. Solomon’s dad was King David, who penned most of the poetry we find in the book of Psalms. Tucked into many verses in Psalms is David’s personal experience with gratitude.

One verse I return to often is Psalm 89:52.

Nevertheless, blessed be our God forever and ever. Amen. Faithful is our King!

TPT

It’s the timing, not just the words, that catches my attention. Back up a bit and you’ll find a 13-verse-long streak of complaining right before verse 52. I get David. Like him, sometimes I can’t understand why. Sometimes I get stuck in how it’s unfair.

David’s courageous nevertheless looks a lot like Easter. Praise in the middle of question marks. Gratitude before, not after, the night turns to light, our sorrow to rejoicing.

And it’s this thanks that pivoted David’s attention. The problems were just as real. Life-threatening, in fact. But God is bigger, and praising Him helps us remember.

Something holy shifts when we step into our life purpose of praising God in the presence of others. It blazes a path for those around us to also pivot from pain and problems to hope and truth and God’s tender, gracious love.

Easter when we’re not ready

Easter’s not all warm and fuzzy, baskets filled with eggs and a cheery bunny. It’s full of hard questions that catch in our throats and crack us wide open. Standing with one foot in glory and the other in our muddle of broken dreams and ampersands. God meeting us where we are and leading us to something better.

Here’s the thing: Easter doesn’t wait for unwrinkled dresses and clean minivans and perfect family photos. It comes when we’re not ready, because it’s then that we need it most.

God breaking into our right now.

Us lifting up praise with cracked voices and surrendered hands

—that’s what Easter is.

It finds us in our need. Comes for us when we’re weak. Holds the answers to our internal wrestlings. Lights a candle in the dark. Makes our loads light.

Maybe today you need to know that God’s not after that smile you force to keep the peace, please other people, or Band-Aid the ache. He doesn’t expect you to show up in your Easter best. He already knows, and He’ll carry you through whatever it is. But first, we surrender.

Let’s press into this truth in Proverbs 15:33,

The source of revelation-knowledge is found as you fall down in surrender before the Lord. Don’t expect to see Shekinah glory until the Lord sees your sincere humility.

TPT

Shekinah, as explained by Clarence L. Haynes Jr. in this article on Crosswalk,

is a Hebrew word which means dwelling or settling. In a biblical sense it represents or means the presence of God dwelling or settling over you. In today’s terms, you might even refer to it as the manifest presence of God. Whichever words you use it is a very real experience in the presence of God.

We’re people of a broken world but here is not our true home. Shekinah glory, the coming near of a God magnificent and holy, reminds us of that.

So we bow in reverence, lift cracked voices and hallelujah-hands to the God who lifts us out of our brokenness and into His embrace.

Easter is a coming home. To hope. To Him. Because He’s ready and waiting for us.

Let’s pray.

Jesus, some of us feel like getting ready for Easter is on us. Like we’ve got to clean up our mess and dry our eyes and pretend our smile comes from the inside. But You came when we weren’t ready, showed us how praising you leads us to wisdom, and better yet, the Wisdom-Giver. You’re ready for us with wide open arms, inviting us to bow low and surrender so You can meet us with more of Yourself.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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