A good filmmaker knows how to terrify his audience with just a shadow. You never have to see the actual monster to be gripped with fear, just the long dark outline suggesting how horrible and mutilated the beast is. Of course, this same effect is used as comic relief when the strange shadow turns out to be a cuddly kitten.

We are frightened by shadows because we fear what might be casting them. Rarely, however, do we mistake the shadow for the real thing. But this is precisely what Paul warns us about in Colossians 2:16-17. He said that the food laws and holy days of Judaism were not the real thing that devout Jews thought them to be. The real thing, he said, is Jesus.

Jesus is the reality to which religion points. All the things that we might think are so important – obeying religious laws and customs, observing holy days – find their fullness in Christ. Religion is good and true as long as it is centered on Jesus. It is good to obey the rules, but only if we are acting from a heart that is devoted to Christ. Christless religion is like grasping at shadows. It’s not that religion, ritual, or rules are unimportant. Nor is it that they mislead us. It is that they are empty apart from Jesus.

If you feel that your religion has grown stale, that the rituals of what you do at church or in your daily devotions has become mere routine, it is time to lift up your eyes and see who is casting the shadow. Jesus is the real thing. It’s time for you to re-center your life and your religious activity around him. We drift so easily. We so quickly relapse into following shadows instead of worshiping the reality. Here is a prayer to help you re-center around Jesus.

Jesus, you are the reality;
You are the fullness;
You are the truth.
Center me around yourself.
Take your throne again
In the depths of my heart.
Cast your shadow across my life.
Fill my empty religion
With your holy presence.
Capture my imagination,
My devotion,
And my desire.
Be yourself in me
That I may find myself in you.
Amen.

Have you ever turned left when you should have turned right? All of us have gotten off track at one point or another. We’ve gone the opposite way we were supposed to, and the quicker we realize it, the sooner we can get headed in the right direction. When faced with the choice between two opposites (left or right, north or south, Ohio State or Michigan), it’s important that we choose the right one. (Go Bucks!)

We often think of death as the opposite of life, but that’s not the best picture of the truth. The relationship between death and life isn’t the same as the relationship between left and right, or in and out. Instead, it’s like the relationship between dark and light. Darkness is the absence of light, not the opposite of it. In the same way, death is the absence of life.

In Colossians 2:13, Paul says that we were made alive with Christ, even in the midst of our sins. That means that God has filled us up with the life of Christ, which is both abundant and eternal. There is no way for us to possess this life apart from Jesus. After all, Jesus himself said in John 14, “I am the life.”

Being dead in your sins doesn’t mean, of course, that you are biologically dead. It simply means that you are devoid of the abundant and eternal life that Jesus alone possesses and gives. It means that you are lacking, as we all do without Christ, the fullness of life that only the Author of Life can provide.

How can you become filled with this life? Through faith in Jesus Christ. You are made alive with Christ because he was made alive when God raised him from the dead. Placing your faith – your full trust, love, and obedience – in Christ means that you, too, will receive the benefit of his resurrection. But you don’t have to wait until you die to experience new life. You can have it today! Eternal life begins the moment you place your faith in Jesus. Choose life.

I have to confess something: I never liked Jerry Maguire. Yes, there are some good lines. Cuba and Tom shouting “Show me the money!” at each other through the phone is a great scene. And Jerry Maguire has a noble purpose in making sports agency more relational. But the plot was hijacked by the romance which was, shall we say, overcooked. “You complete me.” Really?

Sadly, however, that may have been the truest line in the film. Not that any person can actually complete us, but that we believe: a) that we are at least half empty, b) that we can find our fullness in another human, and c) that romantic love is the only path to this fullness. “You complete me” is the teary-eyed plea of a narcissistic generation bent on finding love, not for the sake of the beloved, but for their own existential fulfillment.

While romantic love has its proper place, the only love that can fulfill us is the agape love of Christ. Paul says, in Colossians 2:10, “in Christ you have been brought to fullness.” This means that Jesus has done for us what no one else could do – make us truly and fully human. Our sinful inclinations, what Paul often calls “flesh,” are subhuman. They move us away from the purpose and glory for which we were originally created. But in Christ we are set back on track. Jesus puts us on the train to fullness.

In fact, it’s more accurate to say that, in Christ, we have already arrived. He has given us everything we need to complete the high calling of humanity. This means that the truest, fullest version of yourself is not the one who gives into sin and temptation or that looks for fulfillment in another person, but the one who lashes himself to Christ and follows hard after God. To be true to yourself is to be faithful to Jesus.

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays, but the reasons I love it have changed over time. When I was young, I loved Easter because of the chocolate baskets I received from a close family friend. We would go to her house Easter evening and I would anxiously await the chocolate boon to befall me. Each year, my basket contained a pastel rainbow of colored chocolate, Reese’s peanut butter eggs, and a large chocolate bunny.

The first time I got the bunny my brain melted. It was huge! And chocolate! It would take me at least an hour to eat this whole thing! I was overwhelmed by this bunny with its colorful packaging and the rich, milk chocolate poured all the way through. But then I took my first bite. My teeth sank through this bunny much easier than I anticipated. I pulled it away in horror. This bunny is hollow! I’ve been cheated! It’s not fair! There wasn’t even caramel inside.

In Colossians 2:8, Paul warns believers against “hollow and deceptive philosophy.” Any teaching that does not depend on Christ, he says, is hollow. Like that giant chocolate bunny, it may look significant and life changing from the outside, but inside there’s just nothing to it. Any teaching, doctrine, or theology that removes Christ from the center is hollow, because nothing else can ever fill the void left by Jesus.

But how can we tell the difference? How can we know when we encounter a hollow and deceptive philosophy?

The best way to answer this question is with a diagnostic question: What is the litmus test of true belief according to this teaching? If the answer is anything other than “the person Jesus Christ,” then it is a hollow and deceptive philosophy. There are many false litmus tests:

• Political ideology or affiliation
• Biblical literalism
• Patriotism
• Human sexuality
• Expressions of spiritual gifts

But none of these can be the center of our faith. These are all chocolate bunnies. They are hollow. They cannot possibly hope to replace Jesus as the center, because in him lives the fullness of the Deity. Christ is the center, and everything flows from him. Your responsibility is to draw life from your personal encounters with Jesus. Always be on your guard against what seeks to remove him from the core of your life and belief.

I used to live in the house across the street from the church where I now minister. When I look out the windows in the back of the church, I can still see our old home and the huge trees towering above it in the backyard. During stormy nights I would lay awake in bed, anxious that these trees would topple onto the roof and crush our family.

In June of 2012 we experienced a kind of storm that I had never heard of before: a derecho. A derecho is a massive thunderstorm system with damaging straight line winds, which in this case reached up to 85 mph. After the storm passed our backyard looked like a jungle. There were tree branches everywhere. Our trampoline was crushed under a massive branch that had fallen at least 30 feet. It was nearly impossible to walk from the back door to the fence at the end of our property. Fortunately, the trees themselves were all still standing. But there sure was a lot of cleanup to do.

Though parts of these massive trees came crashing to the ground, the trees themselves remained deeply and firmly rooted in the soil. For me, this became a picture of the strength we receive when we remain rooted in Christ. Little did we know at the time, but a terrible and deadly storm was looming on the horizon of our family’s life, and we would need those deep roots in Christ to keep us strong and steadfast.

It is vital for believers to be, as Paul said in Colossians 2:7, “rooted and built up in Christ.” This means that we need to have a nourishing, life-giving relationship with Christ, while also being deeply connected to others within our churches. Your root system is your personal relationship with God and your relationships with others. It is crucial for you to invest in these relationships so that your roots will be deep in Christ. When the trials and tragedies of life come, it will be too late to give attention to the relationships that are meant to sustain and nourish you.

One of the most important ways that you can deepen your relationship with God is through prayer. Jesus taught us to pray relationally, addressing God not by his proper name, but with the word Father. Prayer is relational, not transactional. It is not an opportunity to present your grocery list to the heavenly farmer; it is your opportunity to have a heart-level conversation with your heavenly Father. Being rooted in Christ means having a deep and vibrant relationship with God through prayer. Do not wait for life’s derechos to pray. Begin today.