my favorite morning

While American Christians gear up for pancake breakfasts, and little boys are forced into uncomfortable new garments, I intend to squeeze in a few hours of sleep before dining with my parents. Before I do, I found it fitting to share...

This is my favorite morning of the year.

I'm typically not one for holidays. I enjoy the "feel" of Christmas to a certain extent, but it's lost a bit of luster since my grandmother's physical death. Thanksgiving is okay for the company, but I'm one of those strange cats that doesn't like turkey; by the end of the day I feel more lazy than rested.

Easter morning feels like "life," if that's an adequate word for a mystery so eternal. Giving it a day on the calendar only makes it a celebration, but its significance is the foundation of my faith. If Christ is merely a good man who was martyred for me, Christmas falls on par with MLK day. But the resurrection of Jesus is the single greatest hope that has ever been known to man. Take a moment to consider that.

I was driving home from work this past hour, and shuffled my CD changer. I found one of the few contemporary Christian songs that can bring me to tears of simultaneous confusion and joy. I'm confused that God would go to such measures to redeem me for His own. I'm joyful that I can live the rest of my days with this promise:

Joseph took his wife and his child
And they went to Africa
To escape the rage of a deadly king
There along the banks of the Nile
Jesus listened to the song
That the captive children used to sing
They were singin':

My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

Through a dry and thirsty land
Water from the Kenyon heights
Pours out itself out of Lake Sangra's broken heart
There in the Sahara winds
Jesus heard the whole earth cry
For the healing that would flow from his own scars
The world was singin':

My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

He will never break His promise
He has written it upon the sky!
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

I will never doubt His promise
Though I doubt my heart, I doubt my eyes!
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

My deliverer is coming
My delievrer is standing by
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

He will never break His promise
Though the stars should break faith with the sky!
My deliverer is coming
My deliverer is standing by

From The Jesus Record, appropriately a posthumous release from Rich Mullins, who longed for his Creator.