FOCUS: Preparing for Easter, in a bar

I hung out at a bar last night.

This may not seem noteworthy unless you understand I don’t think I’ve ever been in a bar. (I was homeschooled, for crying out loud!) Not in a bar bar. Not in a tavern. And certainly not in a seedy tavern. And certainly not in the seediest of the seedy taverns the night before Easter.

Have I mentioned my husband is a pastor?

I wonder how many pastors spent last night in a bar?

Anyway …  we’d been getting to know some neighbors of ours, and they had a big bash this weekend because a friend of theirs was playing blues at a local tavern. Jeff said, “Wow, that’s great. Maybe we’ll join you.”

So last night, we were both exhausted and Jeff had more work to prepare his message for this morning, but we both felt oddly that the most important way to prepare for Christ’s Resurrection was to go the Trails End Tavern and hang out with the people He rose to save.

I’m so glad we did.

Nothing dramatic happened. No one ran up to us and asked, “What must I do to be saved?!” No exorcism. Nothing shocking.

Just a beautiful opportunity to look, see, and enter into the world of those Christ rose to save.

It was fun to just smile. To see people interact. To see how much we’re the same.

My churchy friends and my neighbors’ bar-hopping friends are all seeking after the same stuff, really: Hope, acceptance, love, touch. We use different lingo but it’s all the same.

We all just want to belong.

The truth is, I needed to go last night. I need to be continually reminded what life is like outside Kari Patterson. What the world is living through and facing and what it’s like out there in the world Jesus came to save. I need it to better understand and love Julie. I need it to better understand and love, period.

And Jesus pitched His tent among us. He came to where we already were. He lived our experience. He felt what we feel. He frequented our watering hole so that we could see His love and be wooed. 

I didn’t do any wooing (and no, I didn’t leave gospel-tracts in the bathroom), but my simple bar-experience last night made me feel alive. Something inside me cried out, “Yes, go where people are! Be curious. Listen long. Watch them. Learn about them. Figure out what makes them tick. Pray over every place you set foot.”

We carry with us the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the RISEN CHRIST. So wherever we go we take His presence, His love, His light.

Today we celebrate, He is RISEN. He is risen indeed!

We honor His resurrection by taking His light and His life to every corner of the globe.

Even the Trails End Tavern.

 {Happy Resurrection Sunday to you, wherever you are! Thanks for reading.}