Well today at our Easter morning family service I underwent the indignity of weighing myself in front of the whole congregation at the end of my attempt to "Lose Weight for Lent", with sponsorship going to Dundonald Family and Community Initiative and the Methodist World Development and Relief Fund...
Some suggested that in order to cut down on weight I should have donned an "mankini" but sense prevailed and no-one was traumatised. But those who have sponsored me (and indeed I myself) were surprised and "delighted" to have discovered that I have lost exactly 1 stone (or 14 pounds for our American cousins) in the course of these past 6 weeks.
I had all my excuses ready incase I hadn't lost anything, or (as I feared) had actually put on weight, after making such rash promises...
But the emphasis in worship today was not on me fulfilling my promises but Christ fulfilling his promises to rise from the dead... not on the stone in weight that I had lost, but the weighty stone that had rolled away from the door of the tomb, revealling that, as the angel said:
"He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him." (Mark 16:6)
That's a much better reason to celebrate...
Happy Easter!
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