I’ve been telling people that I’m really feeling spring this year. Now, I’m not a winter person, so I always welcome spring — the warmer air, the new growth on trees and flowers, the cleansing rain. This year, however, I really feel both the hope and promise and the incredible amount of strength, courage and plain old hard work it takes to grow anew.

As many of you know, I’ve lost both of my parents to pretty long illnesses this past year, my mother passing away only a few weeks ago. These losses are sad and difficult, but it’s honestly a relief to leave behind the constant medical emergencies, phone calls with doctors, meetings with social workers and battles with insurance companies. Without the weight of the stress and anxiety associated with these tasks, I think I’m in for some tremendous transformation this spring.

I’m not sure where the road of transformation may lead me. But, I’m confident in the God who leads me there. The practice of Holy Week feels particularly relevant to me. I always appreciate the profound movement from death to life we experience in this holiest of Christian seasons. This year, I’m especially grateful for a faith that tells me that death doesn’t have the final word.

Christians are resurrection people — a people who believe that transformation happens not only despite death, but through death. Through no other situation can God make known so powerfully how much God loves and cares for us — in this world and the next. This journey from the cross to the tomb to the joy of Easter morning reminds us that we are always ‘dying’ and being born again.

As we move toward Holy Week and Easter, I encourage you to be mindful of your own little ‘deaths,’ the parts of yourself that must pass away in order for you to become fully a wondrous creation of the Divine. If we leave those ‘deathly’ things behind in Lent, we will undoubtedly rise again on Easter morning.

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen indeed!