I took a glance back through my Easter posts from the past three years and discovered something a bit unsettling. Far from being an annual rite, my musings on Easter have legitimately occurred only once on the actual day during the entire span.

In 2005, I mused on Easter Sunday about love and my generation's ability to effect change. In 2006, I wrote a lengthy piece on Good Friday discussing Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, evaluating how the human inclination to question life confronts Easter's message of redemption. But I wrote nothing on Easter Sunday. In 2007, I wrote only that it was cold- no thanks to global warming.

The trip down memory lane just taken is more than a supercilious critique of any personal inconsistency. Looking back is useful in that it reminds us of where we have come from and where we are going. That is certainly the case in this blog, but more importantly, it is in large part the case with Easter. For believers, we pause amid life's whirl and acknowledge the resurrection of our Savior in roughly 33 A.D. For secularists, some look to conflate so arcane a message with something more meaningful.

Still, all sides recall. All sides reflect- even if the ruminations fall in different ways.

In turn, today's headlines are filled with stories about the economic downturn besetting our Nation. Story after story questions why we have reached the present economic crossroads. A few stories offer lessons. From today's Washington Post, we are reminded that along with an inclination to question, we also have a unique proclivity for greed.

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From today's New York Times, we are reminded that prior to the current fix, bankers made questionable trades, banks took on tremendous risk, and homeowners sought to buy houses they could not afford (at no money down). The bottom line was the bottom line. Eventually, bad returns could not longer be shielded by creative bookkeeping. This past week, the Wall Street firm Bear Sterns fell as a result.

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The common ground is that so often life poses before us choices we cannot fully apprehend. Had the investment community understood the sheer magnitude of risk, one might conclude that they would not have created such elaborate financial products aimed at risk transferral, and assumption. The same is true of faith. If we knew now the full measure of our decision between faith in Christ and unbelief, it would be far easier to decide whether belief or unbelief was the better course throughout life. But in practice we have no such omniscience.

In my private journal, I wrote last Easter about being in limbo as to my ultimate law school destination. The outcome has been the product of a choice I did not fully apprehend. Different schools offered different opportunities. Choosing one would lead to vastly different paths than the others. Moreover, whether one school was the 'right' school, left me cloaked in mystery. For me, the decision became a matter of faith, and I made my selection in due course. Today I write this post from my Tucson apartment.

The reality of that Easter remains the same this Easter: I still do not apprehend the full measure of my own existence (nor do you). We all live day to day by grace.

For believers, the Easter message is that not only do we not apprehend the full measure of our existence, but we have no need for such apprehension. We have no need for this understanding because, perhaps even more radically, we do not have possessory rights to our own life. At best we are life stewards over the time we have been given. (Romans 14.8).

When a believer considers the bevy of choices that face us day to day, this creates complications. Not only are we called to trust God through faith, but we are also called to follow God in obedience. Thus, the Easter message is magnified: even while we celebrate Christ's death and resurrection for our sins, we are reminded that it is not without obligation that we are saved. (Romans 14.7). Embracing the unconditional acceptance offered by Christ, requires nothing less than our unashamed surrender to Christ. Our lot becomes the acknowledgment that His right of purchase over us supersedes any right we have to ourselves.

In sum, my point on this Resurrection Sunday is simply to state the obvious. Salvation is about more than just the forgiveness of sins. Easter reminds us that believers are bought with a price. We accept Christ on His terms. We confess where we were in sin. We confess where we aspire to faithfully go: with Christ in obedience come what may.