Easter: All Doubts Aside

Peggy Wehmeyer is a regular contributor to the editorial section of the Dallas Morning News.  My first contact with Peggy Wehmeyer was when she was the religion reporter for the ABC affiliate in Dallas, WFAA.  She went on to fill a similar role for ABC News.  Peggy Wehmeyer is a Christian but she covers religion from various perspectives.  Her column that appeared on this Easter Sunday was titled The Mystery of Faith.  She writes of how she continues to struggle with the question: How do I keep believing this?   She shares conversations that she has had over the years with a psychology professor at Harvard, and journalistic colleagues.  She recalls the number of times she was asked, “Why are you a Christian?” 

She concludes her editorial with the following:

“The 17^th Century scientist Balise Pascal once said, ‘In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.’ 

Easter can be blinding.  Christianity rises and falls on whether it’s true-on whether God supernaturally intervened in human history and raised his son from the dead, or whether the story is just one more religious fable.

So which takes more courage?  This Easter, I want to lay that question to rest.  If I’m wrong, I’ve got little to lose. If I am right, I have everything to gain.”

I appreciate Peggy Wehmeyer’s insights and honesty, but my faith takes me a step further.  I am an Easter person.  As a hospital chaplain I see people’s faith in the Resurrection lived out on a regular basis.  There is no doubt that those who put their faith in Jesus and his Resurrection victory have everything to gain.  I have total confidence in that.   All doubt has been erased.

And it is not just me.  The strongest testimony comes from St. Paul who went from boldly arresting Christians to becoming one of the most influential missionaries of all time.  Paul met the risen Christ face to face.  That moved him to proclaim, “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For in Adam all died so in Christ all are made alive.”  (I Corinthians 15:20-22)

We are Easter people and Hallelujah will always be our song.