How did we ever get it into our heads that the journey to the life we really want would be easy?
The universe reminds us that life is born out of death. There is a rhythmic dying hidden in each season: the loss of the safety of the womb through the risk of birth, the laying down of one’s independence and autonomy for the good union of marriage, the seeds that die for vegetables and flowers to grow, and the peach blossoms that wither and fall to the ground so bubble hot peach crisp can crown a summer supper. Death is the door to life.
It’s almost Easter, the yearly celebration of the Lord Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. The resurrection is God’s lived-out-in-history proclamation that life is stronger than death, and it is the reminder that in God’s mystery, life must pass through death if it is to offer life to others.
For it is written, “He [Jesus] then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. …
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?’” (Mark 8:31,34-37, NIV).
A Jesus who never died would be only a paragon of virtue, not the Son of God whose death gives life. The death of Jesus destroyed death itself and opened the door to new life.
What has been dying in you lately? God promises to bring real life out of what dies. As you pray, can you hold up what you love, what you count on, and what gives you joy as offerings to God? Pray that the deaths you die may bring life to others. Pray that God will give you a heart and vision for the kind of dying that can bring life to others.
Ask God to show you something life-giving you can do for someone who is hurting or alone. As you pray, call to mind someone whose losses and griefs are far greater than your own. Pray that over time, the Holy Spirit will help this person see life emerge from the death he or she is experiencing.
We embrace the true life that comes to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In ways large and small, may we die to ourselves and know the Father’s immoveable peace and energizing joy.
Adapted from Eighth Day Prayers Volume 2: Daily Mercy for Lent and Eastertide © 2025 Sally Breedlove, Willa Kane, Maddison Perry, & Alicia Yates. Used by permission of Forefront Books. May not be further reproduced. All rights reserved.
About the Author:
Sally Breedlove is the author of Choosing Rest (NavPress, 2002) and one of the authors of The Shame Exchange (NavPress, 2009). She is the co-founder of JourneyMates, a Christian soul care and spiritual formation ministry. She serves as a spiritual director and retreat leader on many occasions and the associate director of Selah-Anglican, Leadership Transformation’s program for training spiritual directors. With her husband, Steve, a bishop in the Anglican Church in North America, she has minister broadly across the United States, in Canada, and overseas. She is a mother to five and a grandmother to sixteen. She lives in Chapel Hill, NC.
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