Acts 3:15
You killed the author of life, but God raised Him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. (empahsis added)

I spend a lot of my time speaking about stuff that happens in life that makes us stop, pause, grieve and wonder if we'll ever survive. I meet people in churches, Bible studies, civic groups and one on one that are hurting and hopeless and want to know that life past the comma is more than a cute phrase. They want to know that there really is life past the moments in our lives that come unexpectedly and paralyze us. And this Easter - listening to a sermon by my pastor, Bob Gruver, - it hit me how much the death and resurrection of Jesus is the biggest proof that there is, indeed, life past the comma.

Can you think of any more vivid evidence of a comma than the cross? The followers of Jesus couldn't. It didn't just make them pause, it made them run. They questioned everything Jesus had said and even questioned people they trusted when they said they'd seen Jesus alive three days later. They were absolutely stuck.

But if the comma was a cross, the tomb was life past the comma. Proof - scripturally and historically - that life does exist beyond the most tragic and unexpected events in life. Have you been laid off? The victim of downsizing? Have you lost someone you love? Getting ready to see your child graduate and leave home? Remember the empty tomb and know that there is life past the worst moments we'll ever face. And that's good. But today I saw the end of our verse and realized the rest of the story.

"We are witnesses of this." 5 simple words, 7 short syllables, but together they hold the key to life past the comma. It can never be enough for you alone to survive. Life past the comma includes you pointing the way for others coming behind you, experiencing what you did and needing any ray of hope that you can offer. There are looking to you to tell them that you have witnessed what they will soon know: God has not forgotten them nor left them in the tomb they feel. He is still at work for them and will come through for them.

I know, personally, I have felt the most fulfillment in our ministry when God has allowed me to speak hope and peace into the troubled waters of another person's life. And when I am able to see the faint glimmer of hope in their eyes, I think of my comma and thank God that He never stopped writing my life.

He was only adding a dramatic pause.