HAPPY EASTER! THIS SPRING DAY is a time to celebrate new life if ever there was one, and I hope that you have time to spend with family and friends and with anyone or anything that you care about.

Who or what are you passionate about? Take a moment or two to think about that today. I’m always asking that question of people because it’s our passions that really bring us to Life.

I was talking recently to a guy who burns with a passion for new hope and new Life for inner city London. He literally breathes life and response into and out of those he engages with. A whirlwind of life-giving energy.

Then there’s the granny I know who’s been seriously ill for years but suddenly sprang back into life with the arrival of her first grand-child. She’s passionate about the little fellow. He breathes life into her. Granny breathes life into him.

And I’ve just been back to lead the Sunday worship in St Barnabas’ Hattersley where I began my ministry nearly thirty years ago. Great to meet up again with a bunch of born leaders, still burning with the same passion and enthusiasm for their neighbourhood as they were when I first met them more than a quarter of a century ago. No wonder the sun was shining!

Same applies to the Church in Cheadle where I preached in the evening. People who’d been present for the laying of the foundation stone back in 1963 were still living and loving in that Church. And they breathed Life into me.

And again, during a visit to Bramhall High School, I bumped into passion and enthusiasm for life – amongst staff and students alike. The wind of God’s Spirit is still creating, still raising up new Life.

I’m one of the luckiest blokes alive. Every day I encounter people who are the salt of the earth. People like these make the world go round and I never tire of celebrating the stories of the people who breathe Life into being.

Passionate people reflect God. Jesus Christ lived and breathed the fount and source of all Life and so it came to be that even death itself was transfigured. Even death signalled a new and bright beginning. For God is the Ultimate when it comes to passion. And before you head back to your bed tonight the source of all Life will have breathed new passion into YOU. That’s resurrection; that’s the Good Life; and that makes for a happy Easter.

PURE FM 107.8 -Thought for the Day – Sunday 12 April 2009