It is Good

I keep wanting to introduce today’s blog by wishing everyone a “Happy Good Friday,” but that seems a bit off. It doesn’t feel good and it doesn’t seem worth celebrating……that shall come on Sunday. Today is always a tricky day for me. It feels intense, somber, and introspective.

Last night, I had the privilege of attending a Passover dinner (Seder meal) with a youth group student I’m mentoring. This particular event is the culmination of a class our youth group kids have the option of taking during their high school career. It’s always an honor to be part of something this special. I was truly grateful for the opportunity to share this experience with my mentee.

The emotions of the night always hits me in different ways in different years. Last night, I kept thinking about the idea of generosity. At its core, the Bible is a series of books centered around generosity, culminating with the ultimate gift. As my friend Gary Hoag so simply puts it, generosity is a beautiful combination of two things: joy and sacrifice. Our gifts should be made with a cheerful heart and require us to sacrifice. Years ago, I was exploring the concept of sacrificial generosity with Gary and he asked me a simple, but powerful question. “Does your giving require you to give up something important to you?” At the time, my answer was a clear “no.” It wasn’t until later that I realized what it really meant to experience true sacrifice in my giving.

Easter and Good Friday are just that: joyful and sacrificial. As last night’s group explored the details, chronology, and context of Jesus’ final hours, it felt anything but joyful. It was painful, gut-wrenching, and hard to imagine. But it’s the very definition of the word sacrifice. He sacrificed everything……for us. The ultimate gift.

The joy? That comes next. When they rolled away the stone to reveal an empty tomb, that’s when everything changed. Disbelief and confusion quickly turned into belief and joy. He is risen. A joy unlike any other joy.

Joy and sacrifice, the building blocks of generosity. Whether you’re a Christian or not, I hope you take a few moments today to think about this definition of generosity. Maybe you have joy in your giving….awesome! Maybe you have sacrifice in your giving….. awesome! I promise you something, though. If you combine the two, everything changes and there’s no going back.

Good Friday may not be the most joyous of holidays, but man, it is good.