1 Peter 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
Q: How does Jesus’ resurrection from death shape your hope for both the future and life today?
Coming off the heals of a somewhat tense conversation with a good friend yesterday, this verse and question have brought me to a point of thankfulness to Jesus for this...
My friend and I are in the middle of a discussion on the interpretive framework that's appropriate for Genesis 2-11. Yesterday that convo did get a little tense, but it honestly only got there out of the history of our friendship together. And we could only share the disagreement due to the strong foundation of our friendship. AND EVEN BEYOND THAT we only have this friendship because of Jesus... The punchline for me on this reflection question is that Jesus beat death and invites me into new life - an amazing thing about that reality is that when it comes to present-day disagreements with friends - so long as the friendship is built on the resurrecting gracious power of the Lord, the disagreements don't penetrate the relationship any deeper than a papercut on your finger. Without the Lord, with a shifty and sandy foundation to any relationship, the stuff that feels personal cuts deep, damage - whether real wounds or perceived threat/attack - both take time to heal, and sometimes the wound is too deep and the friendship crumbles.
My friend and I here weren't talking about sin in our personal lives or having a tense accountability meeting - we simply disagree on some interpretive steps, but by God's grace the tension is controlled and scoped to the discussion, not allowed to bleed into our friendship because the foundation is the Person of Jesus, the unchanging Lord who does not shift or change - a solid rock.