My Hero

I love and hate this time of year.

Hate it for the changing weather, and for allergy season. I'm allergic to birch (it developed only about 4-5 years ago) so now I'm stuck in misery for 3-4 weeks when trees are pollenating. I get serious itchy eyes from all the pollen around and it really sucks.

I love it though because I love the lighter days, the beauty of spring, and knowing it's the advent of summertime, woohoo! Plus, I love Easter. It's amazing and really incomprehensible to me to fully understand the nature of Jesus's sacrifice, which is why I and other Christians celebrate Easter. I don't think I'll ever experience and know what Jesus went through, BECAUSE of what he went through, and that's amazing to me! I'm so grateful and thankful for his amazing sacrifice.

Years ago, when I was in college, I discovered Hero! The Rock Opera. It's a modern day musical of Jesus's life and death and it was written, produced, and performed by Christians, so unlike Christian-themed musicals on broadway, this just has more heart to it. I highly recommend it. Many well known Christian artists were a part of the production, including Michael Tait from DC Talk (playing Hero- Jesus), Rebecca St. James as Mary Magdalene, and Mark Stuart (the lead singer from Audio Adrenaline) playing Peter, just to name a few. It is AMAZING. I have both the CD and the DVD of the show. I know almost all the songs by heart and have the CD on my Zune, and I've been playing it constantly at work this week. I love all the songs, but two of my favorites are called "Hero's Agony" and "I Am" (sung back to back), and it's when Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemene. It's so moving to me, and sad. I think the worst part of the whole sacrifice for Jesus wasn't the pain and the humiliation and the betrayal the people, but the separation from God he had to experience. He didn't want to go through any of it, but I think knowing he would have to be separated from God, to have the Father turn away from him, that was the worst part. And although he didn't want to experience that, he did. For me. And for you. For everyone, because he loves us so much. Thank you so much, Jesus! You really are my hero, because you saved me. :)