Sunday Meditation 17

‘He is risen . . . He is risen, indeed’

My first real success as a writer came about 40 years ago when I was a weekend correspondent for The Tampa Tribune. The assignment was an Easter sunrise service; I got it because none of the regular reporters wanted to get up that early.

There’s a parable in there somewhere.

The event was modest: About a hundred people, some with lawn chairs, huddled together on a chilly, clear morning at Orange Lake in New Port Richey. There was a short sermon; a song or two; that was it.

Not much to work with. So, like a word sketch artist, I made notes about how people were dressed, the look on their faces, the natural surroundings. It wasn’t all that memorable, except for a line where I wrote that the extended limbs of the large trees created a cathedral-like canopy over the small congregation.

There were just two quotes: A smiling woman said “He is risen” to a nearby young man, who responded, “He is risen, indeed.”

The story — about 500 words or so — ran on the local front pages of the Pasco and Hernando-Citrus editions. Perhaps 10,000 people saw the short article and the photograph that appeared with it; maybe half that number read it. But somebody up the food chain at the newspaper’s downtown office saw it, read it, liked it. I’d popped up on the radar. Why? Because I took the assignment seriously — and gave it my best shot.

That Easter story opened doors; I hustled through them. By the time I graduated in 1977, I had a job offer.

Ba-da-bing; ba-da-boom. (Rim shot.)

Like I said earlier, there’s a parable in there somewhere.

Let me finish with this: It wasn’t the apostles who showed up at the tomb on Easter morning. It was a small group of women. They got the blessing. (Perhaps the guys just wanted to sleep in.)

Marshall Brickman, who co-wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall,” put it this way:

“I have learned one thing. As Woody says, ‘Showing up is 80 percent of life.’ Sometimes it’s easier to hide home in bed. I’ve done both.”

Next time you get a chance, “Show up.” It could change your life.

Jim Lamb is a retired journalist and author of “Orange Socks & Other Colorful Tales,” the story of how he survived Vietnam and kept his sense of humor. He believes in his heart that Jesus rose from the dead on that first Easter morning. For more about Jim and his writing, visit www.jslstories.com.