An Easter Mindset & How We See the World

An Easter Mindset & How We See the World
by
April 30, 2025

First of all, THANK YOU to everybody who has made a commitment to support the mission and ministry of our church for another year. We have had a very strong response to the “Generous Hearts” campaign so far. It is not too late to be a part of this campaign. You can submit your commitment electronically at woodmontchristian.org/pledge.

Also, a big congratulations to our Disciples Class and their families on their baptisms on Sunday! What a joyous day in the life of our church! Also, I look forward to launching my new book on May 13 which will coincide with a new sermon series starting Mother’s Day titled “Timeless Values for a Chaotic World.”

Many Christians underestimate the importance of mindset and the significant role it plays in our spiritual lives. Our mindset is always a choice. Other people do not determine our response. Victor Frankl once argued that we may not choose our circumstances or what we go through, but we can always choose how we want to respond. He survived the Holocaust. Moving beyond Easter, I see three different mindsets from which to choose.

The first is what I call the “Good Friday Mindset.” With this approach we are always afraid, always disappointed, disillusioned, and never satisfied. Nothing is ever good enough. Life is unfair and it never pans out the way we hope. We feel lost, we feel confused, we feel angry and let down. We blame all of our problems on other people and never take responsibility. We feel like everybody is out to get us, and we can’t catch a break. The bad news keeps coming, we live afraid and anxious, and we have a hard time finding any sense of hope. It sometimes seems as though the ones who choose this mindset do not want things to get better because pessimism and complaining come naturally. It is also a fast way to lose friends.

The second option is the “Indifferent Mindset.” We exist and go through the motions. Life is mundane, repetitive, and boring most of the time. We feel like we do the same thing over and over again. We take our loved ones for granted, and we’re not really present with them. We’re just kind of here, and that’s about it. We spend a lot of time staring into our phones looking for new Instagram pictures or emails to come in. Nothing really excites us. Nothing really inspires us. Sadly, many people choose to live this way every single day.

The third mindset is the one most needed in our world right now – I call it the “Easter Mindset.” With the Easter Mindset, we make an intentional decision that we are sick and tired of the way things have been, so we decide to live with energy, gratitude, optimism, and hope. We look at every day as a gift, and we don’t take it for granted. We pay attention to sunsets, flowers, nature, and children playing. We treasure friendships, family, and spring budding all around us. We stop looking for the worst in other people and we start seeing the good. We learn to forgive and let things go. We stop focusing on what’s wrong with everybody else and we start asking where we can improve and help others. A key aspect of cultivating the Easter mindset is recognizing that there is a multibillion-dollar industry out there that exists to keep us afraid and divided all the time. And in this business, it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between what is true and what isn’t; what is fact, and what is opinion; what is relevant and what is noise. When we live our lives afraid all the time, scared all the time, we tune into this media machine, and we don’t turn it off. It becomes addicting, consuming, and even demoralizing.

That’s not the way Jesus wants us to live life. His consistent message throughout the gospels is “Do not be afraid and do not worry.” Excessive fear squanders our quality of life. It can even lead to emotional paralysis and isolation. Once we work to cultivate this Easter mindset, we quickly recognize that fear does not win, love wins. Death does not win, life wins. The evil of this world does not win. God wins over and over again. Once we learn to live this way, we will see the world differently and discover meaning, joy, and fullness of life. Yet if we are to live this way, we first have to desire it and choose it.

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