Sometimes It Only Takes One Person! … Welcome to the weekend my friends. I hope you are still reveling in the joys of Christ’s resurrection and living like Easter people. I’ve used those words several times and one reader wrote to me asking “just what are Easter people?” Shame on me for thinking everyone would know that!

The phrase was spoken by St. Augustine in 354 A.D. What he meant in that Easter sermon using ‘Easter People’ was simply this: “their faith in Jesus Crucified and Risen must be lived by imitating Him in daily life by the way they spoke, thought and acted. Anything else was a betrayal of Jesus and their faith.” If Augustine were here today, he’d say the same thing!

It can take just one person who lives with Easter in their hearts to change others. A few days ago I read the story about that Memorial Day weekend in 2002 when a barge hit the bridge on I-40 over the Arkansas River, destroying a 600-foot span of the bridge. Even worse was 14 unsuspecting people in their cars and/or 18-wheelers that dove over the edge of the missing span to their death.

There was a bass fishing competition on the river that day and several of the fishermen saw the bridge collapse and unsuspecting cars and trucks were still coming. One fisherman didn’t hesitate. He reached into his hazard kit for the emergency flare, whipped it into a firing stance and shot it up into the air where it landed on the windshield of an 18-wheeler speeding down I-40 at 70 miles an hour! The shocked driver hit his brakes then his front tires slid over the drop-off. He quickly put his truck into reverse, pulled his wheels back up onto the bridge, set his emergency brakes and grabbed a large bright hazard flashlight and stood in the middle of the interstate to warn the other drivers.

What comes to your mind in this story? It reminded me of Jesus calling his first disciples. No hesitation, they went. That was brave and fearless, just like these two men at the bridge collapse. The fisherman (and others) could have easily been pummeled by the cars falling off the bridge. As for the truck driver, it’s a bold step to stand in the middle of an interstate highway with a flashlight! Brave, bold, fearless and even more, they cared. They didn’t want one more person to die. In the history of this story, it mentions the press who spoke with both men who didn’t know each other at all. Yet, they had one thing in common saying “I couldn’t just stand around and do nothing.” They also had no problem telling the news reporter that they were men of faith and their heroism that day was in God’s strength alone.

All it took was for one man to pick up his flare gun and fire it to save the lives of many. And in the same way, we’ve been given the ‘flare’ of the gospel to save others. The question is, will we fire it? Will we live as Easter People and share the life-saving message of Christ with others? In our society today, it takes courage to share the Gospel, but God doesn’t let us off the hook on this subject. We are God’s children and so are the others that don’t even know that. God has created every person on this earth and loves them and wants them all in His incredible family. You may say “I can’t do that” and you are right, you can’t on your own strength. Neither could the fisherman or the trucker. It was their faith that gave them the courage to stand on God’s strength and do what was right.

The Apostle Paul told the Philippians (1:14 -GNT) “And my being in prison has given most of the believers more confidence in the Lord, so that they grow bolder all the time to preach the message fearlessly.” That’s our mission, Easter People. Tell them our stories of faith and don’t let the opportunities get away. GO—proclaim—GO help—GO love—just GO and never ever stop going to share the incredible Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord, AMEN!