"Let's start at the very beginning..."

The birth of a blog.

We begin on Easter day because this blog is the result of a lenten fast. I will tweak my layout, add some more details and who knows what else in due course... but today is about getting started and the title tells enough for now.

So for a first post we do, of course, have an Easter theme. I was thinking a few weeks ago about how many people call themselves Christians (I'm one of them by the way) and how this can mean a whole host of different things. For me the belief in and attempted following of Jesus Christ is a necessary element but this isn't true for everyone it seems. The next day I came across the music for a song that did quite a good job of expressing how I feel about the Christian life so I'll let the lyrics tell you what Christianity means to me:

Beneath the cross of Jesus
I find a place to stand,
And wonder at such mercy
That calls me as I am;
For hands that should discard me
Hold wounds which tell me, "Come."
Beneath the cross of Jesus
My unworthy soul is won.

Beneath the cross of Jesus
His family is my own—
Once strangers chasing selfish dreams,
Now one through grace alone.
How could I now dishonour
The ones that You have loved?
Beneath the cross of Jesus
See the children called by God.

Beneath the cross of Jesus—
The path before the crown—
We follow in His footsteps
Where promised hope is found.
How great the joy before us
To be His perfect bride;
Beneath the cross of Jesus
We will gladly live our lives.

It's by Keith and Kristyn Getty and you can listen to it here: http://www.gettydirect.com if you like.

So. Yeah. I've wanted to share that for a while and now I have a blog again I can!

Living gladly beneath the cross of Jesus. This is my analogy for Christianity and so for my life. Hence I post it first - because it comes first. The cross itself is a symbol for oh so many things, perhaps the most basic and powerful being death. There are many more but they are not for today.

For today, Easter, is about what comes next. After the cross. After death. The day of resurrection and rebirth. The day that means new life. And what better analogy for this blog is there?! A new blog that comes from the death of an old blog; which is in itself a metaphor for the beginning of a new chapter in life that follows from the end of the last; which has only been possible through the death of Jesus and His life changing resurrection power!

It seems to me that having the cross at the beginning - of this blog, this life, everything - is "a very good place to start".