This weekend Ukraine celebrated Easter. Interesting to research the history between the ‘two’ dates, the Catholics/Jews/Protestants on one side celebrating the first day of Spring using the Gregorian calendar, and the Orthodox Church stuck using the Julian calendar. In any case, I don’t think it matters. Are we instructed to commemorate Christ’s birth or resurrection? Did I miss something? I see communion, baptism, frequent gatherings among believers.. seems to me what God intended was a natural, life-giving and consistent reality of our faith displayed daily, a tribute to the powerful grace we’ve encountered without religious form. I’m all for building family traditions, memorial ‘stones’ if you will within the family and community. But, does it bother anyone else out there that Christmas and the Resurrection find their origins in pagan or greek mythology? You want to celebrate the Resurection around the Passover? Great! But painting eggs and collecting them with baskets, do you ever wonder where this stuff comes from? Do you care? Better question, does God care that we mix and mingle the world’s most amazing events with world? Isn’t it amazing that countless millions will go to hell, only inches from the true reality of Christ, as we gather eggs alongside, and open our presents. I think, personally, we’ve been duped as believers, forced to sanctify (if that is possible) unimportant pagan rituals in the guise of being spiritual. The world allows us to have our little religious days, as long as they can come alongside and make a buck, and soften the reality of what we really celebrate with some sweet chocolate and pretty lights. Our family painted eggs, we had a Christmas tree and did the thing again this year. I’m not a legalist, I don’t think. But what is the opposite of legalism, and could it be possible that we are that? When I look at the literal and practical impact Christians are making, myself included, on the community around us, something isn’t right. We blend in. We are worldly. We think this life is a pleasure cruise, instead of the battleship stationed outside the gates of hell.