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EASTER 2020
Kathyie
Doyle
FINANCE DIRECTOR
Kathyie manages and oversees the finances at the Fuller Center as well as Koinonia Farm. She worked for many years at Habitat for Humanity. Kathyie is a longtime friend of the Fuller family.
An Easter kind of love
As a child, my favorite holidays were Christmas and Easter. Although there were more activities at Easter (or as we said back then “Eastertime”) such as egg hunts, games, plays, programs and speeches, Christmas was the best because my haul was greater — if I was somewhat good all year or doubled down around late September. Each fall, my siblings and I would spend weeks combing through our well-worn Sears Toy Book in eager anticipation of getting at least one of the dozens of toys that we circled in the yearly catalog.
Alas, neither Christmas nor Easter had no deeper meaning for me other than what I would receive. (I am not ashamed to admit that now because I was a child, and I thought as a child, and my desires and perspectives were those of a child.) Nothing mattered more to me than, well, me.
That is, until one early spring day at a school assembly when, as a fifth grader, I heard the sermon of a traveling school evangelist (yes, we had them back then) who visited our elementary school and spoke about how God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believed on Him should never die but should have everlasting life (John 3:16), and that if we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we would be saved. During his talk, he made the concept of salvation so real and so personal that I found myself raising my hand and accepting his invitation for salvation — mostly because I didn’t particularly want to die but also because, even as a child, I appreciated the depth of God’s love even though I did not completely understand the depth of His sacrifice. Also, the fact that His Son willingly died for me was incredibly mind-blowing.
That day is a cherished memory. On that day, my faith was established, and I learned that love is not about receiving but about giving. When I later heard a sermon about Jesus’ agonizing experience in the Garden of Gethsemane, I realized that true love is also about giving what you’d really rather not, or what I came to think of as an Easter kind of love.
All of us who have accepted the sacrificial love of the Father and the Son must continue in it by doing things that we may really rather not but do because it will glorify both the Father and the Son. For us, an Easter kind of love is a love that is selfless and is freely given. It honors and emulates the love that the Father and Son has for us. It is compassionate and compelling. It will make us care more, do more, give more and be more than we would otherwise. It will not allow us to be untouched or complacent. By its very nature, an Easter kind of love obliterates the question of “What’s in it for me?” by reminding us that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
As an adult, my favorite holidays still are Christmas and Easter. Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, and Easter commemorates the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, as well as my own rebirth. As a child, both holidays represented the joyous gifts I would receive, and they still do. However, I am daily reminded of my most precious gift that I am compelled by love to share: the knowledge of and belief in the risen Savior who died on the cross. His is the epitome of an Easter kind of love.
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One Comment
Thank You Kathyie. This year we’d rather not be confined to our homes harboring concerns but, as you say, we do what we can to glorify the Father and the Son. Maybe we can glorify Him even more this year not being distracted by the many Easter activities that would otherwise have filled our schedules and placed demands on our time. This Easter–a time for peaceful silence and reflection…