Practicing the Resurrection in 2025

We are living in a story with a God-determined outcome.

This past year I devoted The Gospel of the Kingdom to writing spiritual theology that would help all of us navigate a challenging election cycle. And it was a challenge. I even sometimes wonder: was my labor in vain?

How did you do over this last year? What were your levels of fear, exhaustion, anger, peace, hope, or love? How did you navigate our challenging election cycle plus all the other aspects of regular life? I’d say I was a mix. I experienced some spiritual ups and downs, and ups and downs are to be expected. But after this taxing year, I feel a bit weary.

For many decades I have turned to the last part of 1 Corinthians 15 for reinforcement when feeling spiritually tired, weak, or dull. Or, to put it another way, I turn to 1 Corinthians 15 to give me hope and a vision for the future. I will do the same in 2025, no matter what it holds.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Paul’s big is idea is that the resurrection changes everything:

If there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything about him is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors…if Christ weren’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead!

1 Corinthians 15, MSG

Paul knows that there are practical discipleship implications of the resurrection. The resurrection is the beginning act in the fulfillment of God’s re-creative intentions. Therefore, because of the resurrection we can:

Stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

1 Corinthians 15:58

These well-known words are both a call to continual action and a promise. They reveal the applied meaning of the resurrection.

As we stand firm, we can see that the quaking issues in our culture do not have to mean shaking within our soul.

Let nothing move you means something like don’t get knocked off your feet by current events. Like a poised-for-action athlete, a steady stance readies us to be unwavering, steadfast ambassadors of God’s kingdom.

Giving ourselves fully to the work of the Lord is an invitation every morning to rededicate ourselves to Jesus and the work of Jesus for that day. To work on my faithfulness and fidelity, I pray most every morning: Come on, Jesus, let’s go do our work together.

This connectedness to the risen, alive Jesus means that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. The prayers you pray, the art you create, the sermons you preach, the conversations you have, the things you write, your acts of justice and benevolence all matter. They will stand for all time in the world already inhabited by the resurrected Jesus.

These ideas of Paul describe a reality you can count on. They are meant to keep us going in tough, discouraging times.

What does living in a resurrection reality mean for daily life in 2025?

Here are a few thoughts.

• Just show up…keep offering your best effort.

• Create a rule of life that keeps you connected to the risen Jesus and stick to the process.

• Learn to stay exquisitely present to each moment.

These are means for what Eugene Peterson called “practicing resurrection.” He wrote:

When we practice resurrection, we continuously enter into what is more than we are…something we do not originate and cannot anticipate. When we practice resurrection, we keep company with Jesus, alive and present…the practice of resurrection is an intentional, deliberate decision to believe and participate in resurrection life…life that is the last word, the Jesus life.

We are living in a story with a God-determined outcome. Someday God will fully mend this world which we marred. Resurrection is the surest sign of this Divine restoration.

Until we connect again in 2025, in keeping with our work of spiritual theology and spiritual practices, this is my prayer for you:

May you always know that you are authorized by God to act in his name—that is—within his character and purposes. I pray that moral decline and social upheaval will not throw you off your game, and that you can stay gentle, positive, hopeful, and confident. May you experience the truth that the resurrected Jesus is always with you and that “as you know him better, he will give you, through his great power, everything you need for living a truly good life, [for] he even shares his own [resurrected] glory and his own goodness with us!” (2 Peter 1:3)

Let’s begin 2025 by practicing the resurrection!

I wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!