Come to stillness now.
Whether you're just waking up or taking a break before work begins.
Or maybe you've been able to carve out five minutes within your busy morning.
This space is yours to breathe into it.
Take a nice inhaling breath through your nose and slowly release through your mouth.
Again,
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
Let your breath be an act of trust that you don't have to control this moment.
Allow your body to soften.
Unclench your jaw and allow your shoulders to soften,
Lowering down away from your ears.
This,
Beloved,
Is a resurrection morning.
And resurrection is never rushed.
Breathe into it.
And hear these words from Romans chapter 6 verse 4.
We were buried,
Therefore with him by baptism into death,
In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
We too might walk in newness of life.
We too might walk in newness of life.
Allow those words to settle within your soul.
Dear friend,
Resurrection is not just a doctrine.
It is a daily invitation.
Every morning you wake into a body that breathes,
A heart that beats,
And a spirit that was raised with Christ.
You are not starting this day as someone abandoned in the tomb.
You have been raised.
The same power that rolled the stone away is alive in you right now.
But here's what I want you to sit with for a moment.
Paul says we might walk in newness of life.
Not just believe it.
Not just know it.
But walk in it.
Embody it.
And allow it to shape how you move through this day.
What would it mean for you to walk differently today?
Because you are a risen person.
What might it look like to leave that in the tomb?
Leaving old patterns behind?
Maybe an anxious way of thinking?
Or heaviness that you keep picking back up?
Oh,
What would it look like to leave it in the tomb this morning and walk out into something new?
Hold this question gently as you breathe.
Knowing that you don't have to answer it.
Just be willing to walk towards it with each inhaling and exhaling breath.
Let's pray.
Risen Christ,
I come to you on this side of resurrection.
I don't always feel a risen person though.
Some mornings I still feel the weight of what I thought I had buried.
And some days the tomb feels closer than the garden.
But your word says I was raised with you.
And I choose to stand on that today.
Renew me this morning.
Not just in theology,
But in the way that I walk.
Let resurrection life show up in how I respond to a difficult person today.
And how I face the next hard task.
Show up in how I carry peace or anxiety into the next hour.
Where I have been living in old patterns,
Help me to see them for what they are.
Grave clothes I no longer need to wear.
Because you have already set me free.
Lord,
Let me walk like someone who knows it.
Thank you,
Lord.
That spring is your native language.
That you are always making things new.
And that even in me,
Even in the places that feel most stuck,
Glory be to God that resurrection is still possible.
I trust you with this day.
I trust you with my becoming.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
And for our closing blessing,
Take this with you throughout the day.
As you go into this day as a person of resurrection.
Not perfect.
Not having it all together.
But risen.
Carried by the same grace that brought Christ out of the tomb.
Walk in newness today,
Beloved.
You are not who you used to be.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
