Easter is just past and in the Christian tradition it means a renewal has occurred. The story tells us that the messiah has arrived for the believers and he has in fact died for his followers and been reborn. Hence all his followers need do is to believe and also be reborn without human failings (the original premise being humans are born flawed).

It is a wonderful retelling of a much older tale of rebirth.  Resurrection stories predate Christianity by some 2,000 years. In fact the Christian story is completely revealed on the side of a pyramid in Egypt including the round stone rolling away to reveal the resurrected soul.

These stories survive and are retold because they resonate with us. It is a powerful story and after surviving the first 2,000 years has easily survived another 2,000 years under the Christian label. Who knows what or when the next retelling will be in the human drama but it is likely that it will be retold again and that is what really matters. 

Stories which uplift the human soul are powerful and worth retelling but stories which are self-defeating and which denegrade us or subvert our human spirit, while also being powerful, are not worth retelling. In fact, these stories need to found and deleted. Oh that everything in life we as easy as reformatting the hard drive…smile.

So today, in celebration of the Christian story and the Eygptian story on which it was based I would like to give you a personal rendition that you can carry with you. It is, if you like, your own personal story of redemption and resurrection.

All mistakes (the most accurate english translation for the Aramaic word “sin”) are forgiven. While not forgotten because we need to recall them in order to not repeat them. You are hereby cleansed of them. You are not the summation of your mistakes. You are the summation of your creations. Your creation comes from your choice. You may have made new choices from making mistakes and this is good use of them. May you always make good use of your mistakes. Now and in the future.

The important thing to both remember and to concentrate our energy on, is the fact we are now free to choose. A wrong choice is simply that “a wrong choice”. No wrong choice precludes a new and better choice. So choose now or forever hold your peace (because we will not benefit from endlessly talking about wrong choices and it is always an improvement to simply make newer and better choices).

In summary, we have choice, wrong choices are forgiven but best we do not forget them. Instead we use them to make better choices and then we can truly live the life we love to live. And so it is.