The Power of Our Personal Church

Easter is a new beginning. And who can't believe in that?

I lost my religion years ago.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe. What it is that I believe in is a deeper matter. I’m still trying to figure that out. A seeker, a searcher, they call people like me. Forever searching. It surfaces often, and sometimes when I enter a house of worship of any faith anywhere in the world, something overwhelms this long-ago Sunday-school-going little Catholic boy.

And when Easter arrives, I am reminded of the overarching message—a new beginning. New birth.

If you’re a believer, Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus. If that belief gets you through the night, then it is as real as anything could ever be, and I wish you the very best with that faith. What matters for all of us, I believe, is that we understand that something in this world—something—is bigger, more powerful than us. Whatever that is for you is a personal matter. Still, belief is what keeps us tethered to wonder and meaning. And at Easter, no matter what our relationship is with faith or God or whatever it is, we can’t help being reminded of the power of this.

For me, Easter is renewal. A chance to resurrect my own seeker’s soul, to know that for me the act of searching is the most important thing. Finding is not the full answer for me. It’s instead the looking that is most magnificent.

John Lennon famously sang, “God is a concept, by which we measure our pain.” The truth in that lyric is incredibly powerful, making spiritual sense no matter what your relationship with faith. It doesn’t matter what one believes; the lyric cannot be denied. Whatever God is, we measure our relationship with Him/Her through our emotional capacity. And whether we believe in Jesus or God in however form this manifests, believing that we alone are at the center of the world will likely stunt our chance for renewal. The community of man and our connection to it, that’s what Easter says to me.

So, whatever your relationship with Easter, with the divine, with heaven, with the powerful elements of worlds none of us will understand, all of us want rebirth and renewal, whatever that may mean for each of us. It’s our individual resurrection that we seek. And what better day than Easter to consider what that truly is and how that truly looks for each one of us.

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David W. Berner is the author of several award-winning books of fiction and memoir. This book Daylight Saving Time: The Power of Growing Older is now available for pre-order