Holy Week and Easter Day have passed. We walked mournfully with Jesus along the way of the Cross and rejoiced together at his empty tomb. Jesus died for our sins and rose again that we might have eternal life.

So, now what?

Everything is so ordinary.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is supposed to transform everything. But Easter has come and gone, and home, school, the office, the neighborhood, and the marketplace still look pretty much the same. My spouse, my children, my coworkers seem remarkably unchanged. For that matter, I’m not feeling so different myself.

What difference does the resurrection of Jesus Christ make in our ordinary lives?

It makes all the difference… over time.

Discipleship happens one day at a time, and yet it requires that we remember that each day stands under the perspective of eternity. Small things matter. Satan’s finest work is to lead us to love humanity while having contempt, impatience or indifference for the individual people we actually encounter. Humanity is an abstraction. Our neighbor who talks too much or cuts his yard too infrequently, the person with the bad hygiene or the tragic fashion sense, the man who insulted you or the woman who betrayed you: these are not abstractions. Jesus calls us to love people one face at a time, not the faceless mass of humanity.

This is just where the resurrection comes in. Believing in the resurrection amounts to more than giving our assent to a fact. Don’t get me wrong. The resurrection is a fact. It happened in space and time at a particular point in history.

I don’t just give my assent to the historical fact of the resurrection. I give my assent to the risen Lord Jesus Christ. I place my life in his hands just exactly as it is in order that he can make me a new creation, as St. Paul says. (2 Cor. 5:17-18).

I want to be the person who takes no offence at slights, who forgives as readily as I breathe, and who reliably sees the beauty and goodness in every face I see. I want to be filled with joy so that I can give it away wherever I am and so consistently hopeful that I raise the spirits of all around me.

Sometimes I embody this life. Sometimes, not so much. But the key for me is this: it’s not about trying harder. It’s about surrendering more completely to the risen Lord.

Surrender in battle may come as one discreet event. Spiritual surrender rarely does. It’s a one-day-at-a-time affair. Here’s what works for me:

I read my Bible everyday. I don’t just study it like a textbook. I sit with it. Pray through it. Listen to what the Lord has to say to me in it.

I set out to serve somebody every day.

I look for opportunities to tell others about what Jesus has done for me, because my faith in Him is made complete only by sharing it.

I worship with my faith family at least once a week.

A new life emerges from these simple, ordinary habits. It’s not the habits themselves that give me a new life. These spiritual habits simply help me to attain the only habit that matters: making Jesus Christ first in my life.

Yes, our daily lives are ordinary. And that is just where the extraordinary grace of the risen Lord does its glorious work.