The call came on a Saturday night. “The Today Show is coming!”

The TODAY Today Show?

“When!” I gasped.

“Tomorrow morning,” answered the publicity chief for our upcoming book. “They’ll film at your church.”

At my church? Tomorrow morning?

She needed details. “What time is the service!”

Our publicity lady was gasping, too. Speaking in exclamation points. So I answered in kind. And also with questions.

When? Where? Why? And how on earth did this happen?

No time for answers, however. So I swung into overdrive. Tracked down my pastor. Asked if “Today Show” cameras were OK in worship? When he said yes, I jumped in my closet. What to wear? Then what to say?

I was a wreck, pouncing on Facebook to ask for prayer, guidance, wisdom, help.

I’m not ready for prime time, that is. And I wasn’t ready, to be honest, for “Today.” Watching a cameraman and boom mic follow me around at Sunday worship, I kept looking at my husband Dan, saying with my eyes: Do you believe this?

We’re just Dan and Pat, as most folks knows us. And, may I say it again, I wasn’t ready for prime time. Not twice in one week for sure.

Because after church, we threw clothes in a suitcase, hustled to the airport, flew to Nashville to meet another “Today Show” crew, which filmed me with our daughter Alana Raybon, my co-author for our upcoming book Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace.

In Nashville, she and I crammed in a quick media training, and a short night’s sleep, then awoke for “makeup”—then more hustle to the Scarritt Bennett Center near Vanderbilt University for a sit-down interview with congenial Today Show host Willie Geist. Who flew in. Asked thoughtful questions. Then flew out.

And this, my friends, is fast-paced stuff. I kept waiting for my mouth to catch up with my head–which never quite happened. For a week I bemoaned my not-quite-ready-for-prime-time TV performance.

Then last Sunday it hit me.

This is Holy Week.

In a crowded city some 2,000 years ago, a certain man without publicity, makeup, wardrobe, or media training set his face like a flint for Jerusalem and, by Friday, would be crucified.

He wasn’t ready for prime time either, but by Sunday he changed the world.

So I’ll watch myself on TV, wishing I’d given a better interview, bashing myself for not being more camera ready.

Afterwards, however, I’ll get back up and try again. That’s what happens on Holy Week. You go to a hard place. Then you arise.

God help us all, by this Easter, to do the same.

Patricia Raybon is the award-winning author of books and essays on mountain-moving faith. To support her ministry and writing, please order her books, including her new memoir Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace.

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What’s the point of Easter? To arise from a hard place and try again. Tweet this!

Question: As you struggle with a hard place in your life, how does Easter inspire you? 

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