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So, here we are again, about to celebrate another Easter. A time to let the joy of the resurrection lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness. More than likely church pews will be filled to overflowing this Sunday with people searching for that strength, especially in such a time as this.

New faces, fresh hearts will gather together to hear the good news that, in a world full of fear, hatred, apathy, and pain, there is hope for tomorrow, that proverbial "joy that comes in the morning." Thank God for Easter morning.

There are cynics who are sure to make note of the overflow crowds and who say that many of the people whose faces which surface for the first time since Christmas are missing the point of Easter altogether. I disagree.

I believe that God's love has drawn each and every one of them to this place, on this day, and in this time. Who knows the reach of such grace that beckons the hurting, the searching and, yes, the apathetic among us? Who but the creator of the universe? Most of us simply haven't a clue. It is high time we did.

A psychologist who had just returned from an overseas missionary trip summed up his association with the missionaries who accompanied him by saying, "The only army that shoots its wounded is the Christian army." His reason for saying that had much to do with the fact that lay leaders, pastors, priests, charismatics, fundamentalists, and evangelicals alike have turned our houses of worship, our sanctuaries of healing, into places where we are forced to not only hide our emotional and spiritual wounds, but deny them.

It's so true. Churches should not be cathedrals for saints, they should be hospitals for sinners. And I hate to be the one to tell you this, dear hearts, we are all sinners, every last one of us. Churches are to be places of worship, to be sure, but they are to be havens of rest and renewal for the hurting among us. I suppose that's why I'm not comfortable with the popular practice of hand slapping and cheery greetings at the beginning of a church service. I'm satisfied a smile will do.

We have no idea what burdens someone may have brought to the altar on any particular Sunday, what hurts, what spiritual battles, what failures may have accompanied them on that day. I say give them a few moments of solitude to regroup, settle their emotions, have some quiet prayer time to reconnect with the One he/she has actually come to meet. After the service is soon enough to greet them with the hand of Christian fellowship. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Try to understand others. If they only make an appearance at Easter and Christmas, maybe they have good reasons.

John Huffman, pastor of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California raises some of those.

"I am so excited to see new people on Easter! It gives me the opportunity to share the very essence of what it means to be born again spiritually by the power of Jesus Christ and I try to remember that these people are here for any number of reasons and they may have been absent for as many more."

Perhaps people have had traumatic experiences in chuch- even Christians can be cruel. Some may have been burned out by committee work. Perhaps the church didn't really preach Jesus, His mercy and His love. Perhaps the church was just a social club.

Some have even been spiritually abused by some overeager family member who has tried to force them into the faith. Others may have suffered a major personal tragedy that has rendered them emotionally incapable of sitting through a worship service.

"I have a dear friend," Huffman said, "who quit attending church after her mother died. She told me, 'I can't maintain my composure when I hear those familiar hymns sung. I break down sobbing and embarrass myself.' "

When Huffman's daughter Suzanne died it was very difficult for his wife, Anne, to come to church. "During the next few months," he said, "she had to make her own lonely odyssey of grief, dealing with it her way, as I did with mine."

For people who have lost loved ones, songs of praise are sometimes like salt in the wounds of a broken heart. Protests to God and worship are often contradictory so people must stay away a while until they are well enough emotionally to return.

Many young people leave the church during their college years. They need to stand back, reflect, to make certain they aren't just jumping through spiritual hoops. The faith needs to be theirs personally, and many find that fresh, personal dimension to their faith in Jesus. They return to a church to grow and serve but not necessarily to the congregations of their youth.

Of course, for some, not attending church is a case of rebellion against God. These persons stay away because they don't believe in God or they are very hurt by something God has allowed them to experience. Or they may know they're living with some area of unconfessed sin and they don't want to be hypocritical.

Huffman says some people have never really understood what the Christian faith is all about. "Easter and Christmas are like theater previews of coming attractions: they are interesting, they whet the appetite, but they are not the movie."

Those two holidays, he says, are not designed as an end in themselves, but to encourage a person to a full-time 365- day-a-year commitment of one's life to Jesus Christ- finding forgiveness, meaning, and strength to live one day at a time.

We should then be hopeful that some will see beyond the civic and religious festivities to the life-changing gospel of Jesus. Some may come to understand that there is a God who created them with purpose and meaning. Hopefully they'll come to understand that no one is perfect, that one needs to receive freely the gift of God's grace that cannot be earned by religious activity or even church attendance.

So, I hope church pews all over the county will be filled to capacity this Sunday! Greet enthusiastically those with bright and shining faces and be loving, patient, and compassionate to those whose eyes betray hearts full of pain. All should be welcomed with open arms and hearts.

For in reality, dear hearts, every day is Christmas and every Sunday, Easter.

Hope yours is filled with family, new friends, and a fresh awareness of God's unconditional love!