If you’ve ever sung or played a concert or performed on stage, you know the big let down that comes when it is over. You spend weeks rehearsing, refining every nuance. Then there is the exhilaration of the performance itself, the adulation of the crowds (well, hopefully), and then . . . nothing. It all goes away. And if you belong to some of the groups I have, after the performance you have to sweep the stage, haul out the trash, and put all the equipment away. It really deflates the spirit.

For some reason I think of that feeling in connection with the disciples after the Ascension. Their experience with him was like a roller coaster ride. There was the years of following, the excitement of the entrance to Jerusalem, the panic in the garden of Gethsemane, the horror of the crucifixion, the amazement of the resurrection, the exaltation of the ascension into heaven, and then . . . What? They were alone again to face who knew what.

The greatest threat to faith isn’t the days when everything goes wrong, but in the ordinary days, particularly those that follow some great spiritual experience. Once the glow wears off, how do we live in faith? By getting on with life. By doing the ordinary things a faithful person does. We worship, pray, help people in need, take the car in for an oil change, clean out the mysterious stuff in plastic containers in the back of the refrigerator. Like the disciples, after the Ascension we get on with life.

And from that God works miracles.

Read Colossians 3:17 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne