Whether Easter for you is about the Easter bunny or Jesus Christ, it is usually seen as a celebration of hope and new beginnings. It’s a joyous occasion; kids running around looking for Easter eggs, families gathering for a seafood lunch, churches filled with music and the message of resurrection. But for some of us, the message of Easter may feel a little distant this year.

Maybe for some of us, we’re in a desert/wilderness season. Maybe life isn’t so joyful right now, but instead it’s filled with pain and heartbreak. Maybe the situation you’ve been praying for remains unchanged, and the questions you’ve been pleading to God remain unanswered.

When your life feels more like Good Friday than Easter, it can be hard to reconcile the message of resurrection and victory. So, in today’s blog post, I want to help you with that and share some messages of encouragement to help you hold onto hope even when life still feels like Good Friday.

Firstly, I just wanted to acknowledge that hope and faith can feel fragile, especially when you’re standing at the cross instead of the cave with the stone rolled away. And that’s okay! As I wrote a couple of weeks ago in my blog post "Faith and Doubt", it doesn’t mean you’re weak; it means you’re human.

When Jesus was captured, all His disciples fled, and Peter denied Him three times. And after His crucifixion, they were most likely questioning everything He had said to them and trying to reconcile His miracles and promises with His death. Yet all their questions and doubt could not undo God’s resurrection plan. Let that be your reminder and encouragement that moments of doubt and questioning don’t disqualify your faith, and nothing can cancel out God’s will.

That said, I know from personal experience that there can be many bad things that happen in life that make you wonder how on earth they could possibly be God’s will. And just as I’ve written that, I realised I’ve unintentionally revealed the first step to reconciling that. “On earth.” We, on earth, can’t understand because we don’t have the full picture.

God’s ways and thoughts are higher. And even though, in faith, we are called to trust and obey without fully understanding, God understands that we will struggle with this. He knows that we will have questions, and we may even beg and pray for mercy and for the hard season to end.

So, even though He can’t make us understand His ways or thoughts, He did the next best thing: He sent Jesus to live on earth to show that He not only understands, but He has experienced it as well. Because even Jesus, fully knowing God’s plan and purpose for His crucifixion, asked God if He would remove that cup from Him. I don’t know about you, but that brings me some comfort.

But the biggest message of encouragement I have for you today though, is the reminder that after Good Friday, there is Easter Sunday. This means your resurrection is coming, so hold onto that hope and don’t give up just yet. Because just like the Easter story, you don’t get to jump from suffering straight into celebration and victory. Don’t forget that before you can get to Easter Sunday, you must go through the Saturday; the waiting period where nothing seems to be happening and you’re wondering where God is.

I know that although the Easter story takes place over three days, the reality of our desert season often feels more like 40 years. But let the Easter story remind you that even in the waiting, God is still working in unseen ways. Even when it seems like the story is over, you can trust that not only is God finishing the next chapter, but that endings aren’t necessarily always final.

So, if your life currently feels more like Good Friday or the Saturday after, I really hope that this blog post has given you a different perspective of the Easter story that resonates with the season you’re in. God doesn’t ask you to pretend that everything is okay when it isn’t, and through the Easter story, He reminds you that He is there in the grief, the confusion, and the waiting. All you need to do is hold onto hope and trust that your Easter Sunday is coming.

Happy Easter, everyone. Remember that no matter how dark the world seems right now, because of Easter, there is always hope ✝️