One shining moment

By Bishop Jonathan Holston

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)

The question of what teams are in or out, who will be the bracket buster or who is in the field of sixty-eight all describe the NCAA basketball post-season called March Madness. The culmination of this event is the crowning of a champion and its anticipated anthem of college basketball: One Shining Moment.

This annual video captures three weeks of action and anxiety, surprise and sadness, as well as the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Yet another question is appropriate for our consideration. After the champion is crowned, will your life be any different by what you see and experience? Will you discover a need to fill the void with a search for the next event?

Likewise, this Easter, when the eggs are found, the baskets unwrapped and the bonnets put away, will you feel satisfied or still searching? When you look at your faith journey, will you find a purposeful, abundant life that comes from knowing God and his son, Jesus, or a life still searching for joy and meaning?

It is my hope that this Easter will be for all of us a time to discover the faith which calls people to surrender to a Christ who wants to invade them, and through them, change the world that is, into the world that ought to be.

At the end of three weeks, college basketball fans from around the world will sing these familiar lyrics, namely:
In One Shining Moment,
It s all on the line;
One Shining Moment
Frozen in time.

Yet in the days and weeks ahead, the Christian faithful in South Carolina and around the world will gather for worship singing a song of celebration and life that speaks to the true shining moment:
Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens and earth reply, Alleluia!

That s my true shining moment. He is risen! He is risen, indeed.