As my tagline indicates I’m not a pastor and have never been to seminary. I’m a pretty ordinary guy who lives in the suburbs and is a writer and educator by trade.
Without any formal theological background, it has always interested me how churches and individual Christians approach life after Easter.
With a long background in sports journalism, it’s hard to ignore the metaphor of how many football fans feel like air has been let out of their balloon once the Super Bowl is over. Sigh. Only 5 ½ months until training camp. The same dynamic will be felt by college basketball fans this week as Final Four fades into history.
It’s easy to think of the nearly eight months between Easter and Christmastime as the off-season, and casual observation of attendance bears that out, particularly when schools let out somewhere around Memorial Day.
Of course, the idea that faith should have an off-season or that God is somehow taking a break until the Christian calendar reaches its next high point seems silly. However, in the interest of full disclosure, having been a “Christmas and Easter” (a.k.a. C & E) Christian myself at different points in my adult life it is a notion often practiced. I would be surprised if many of you once fit this role, fill it now, or almost certainly know someone well who does.
I’m not suggesting in any way this makes somebody “bad.” Faith is a journey, a series of peaks, valleys and a lot of time in between, just like life itself. The challenge then, for all of us, is to not lapse into an off-season.
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