Easter weekend provides us with three metaphors from which to live our lives:

Good Friday is the day of the cross.
If we live out of a Good Friday metaphor we see ourselves on the cross;
We focus on the hurts others have inflicted on us.
We focus on the unfairness of our suffering.
We do not take control of our own happiness;
Instead we live out of a place of hurt.

Easter Saturday is the day of the silence of God.
If we live out of this metaphor we focus on what we don’t have,
On what people haven’t given us or haven’t said.
We focus on the lack of things, on what is missing in our lives
We live out of a place of loss,

Easter Sunday is the Day of new life, of joy and rejoicing.
If we live out of an Easter Sunday metaphor,
We may not have all that we want in life but we find reason to celebrate what we do have.
And we don’t cling to the past but rather look to today and to the future.
We focus on what we can do to make our lives worthwhile and fulfilled;
We live out of a place of hope.

So let’s live an Easter Sunday life – a life of hope and joy,
Focusing not on our hurts or our losses but on the gifts that we have received.