Friday
Several years ago, as I grew a crown of frizz in the mist and and gray of my brother's graduation, we listened intently to Dr. Tony Campolo's sermon: It's Friiiiiiiiday...but SUNDAY'S COMING!!
We have met Friday, and it might be a Friday we count in dog years.
In our current toilet-paper -crazed, grocery-hoarding world full of panic and terror, we are even more vulnerable to the "Friday" disease than we are to this new respiratory illness. Social media networks and news pages are flooded with reasons for panic, excuses for greed, and the survivalist inside of us claws desperately at our sanity urging us to grasp at all the material security we can as if it can fill the void of uncertainty in our hearts. Meanwhile, we abandon our humanity, and leave the elderly who rely on one Rover trip to get to the grocery store, the people living paycheck to paycheck, and the sick and high risk with empty shelves and necessary public spaces full of exposure. In our weakness to the ugliness of human nature, we forget that the only certainty we were ever truly given has already given us His answer:
I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
There is no person, no circumstance, no void or reason for panic that He has not already foreseen and conquered. As we are always encouraged to look for the helpers, keep your eyes on The Helper. For me, He is in the comfort and relief of being "quarantined" with my best friend (who drove us an hour away to enjoy grocery shopping with some normalcy at 6am last week with a smile on his face), in the joyful optimism of my mother as she lovingly prepares her air-fried pickles and homemade cocktails with my father on the back patio every Friday, the scream-giggle videos of my infant nephew and laughing siblings, a solitary walk in the bright lime glow of new Spring, the laughter my coworkers have clung to despite the new swamp of uncharted territory we have waded into, live-streamed Church services and prayer emails, personal daily blessings and reminders of His love that we hold close to our heart, and time to listen more intently to the most sufficient rule book we have ever been provided with.
It is Friday. We are in it up to our eyebrows. But the certainty of Sunday has already been promised!
Cling to the faith, let go of the toilet paper.
--LG
In our current toilet-paper -crazed, grocery-hoarding world full of panic and terror, we are even more vulnerable to the "Friday" disease than we are to this new respiratory illness. Social media networks and news pages are flooded with reasons for panic, excuses for greed, and the survivalist inside of us claws desperately at our sanity urging us to grasp at all the material security we can as if it can fill the void of uncertainty in our hearts. Meanwhile, we abandon our humanity, and leave the elderly who rely on one Rover trip to get to the grocery store, the people living paycheck to paycheck, and the sick and high risk with empty shelves and necessary public spaces full of exposure. In our weakness to the ugliness of human nature, we forget that the only certainty we were ever truly given has already given us His answer:
I have overcome the world (John 16:33).
There is no person, no circumstance, no void or reason for panic that He has not already foreseen and conquered. As we are always encouraged to look for the helpers, keep your eyes on The Helper. For me, He is in the comfort and relief of being "quarantined" with my best friend (who drove us an hour away to enjoy grocery shopping with some normalcy at 6am last week with a smile on his face), in the joyful optimism of my mother as she lovingly prepares her air-fried pickles and homemade cocktails with my father on the back patio every Friday, the scream-giggle videos of my infant nephew and laughing siblings, a solitary walk in the bright lime glow of new Spring, the laughter my coworkers have clung to despite the new swamp of uncharted territory we have waded into, live-streamed Church services and prayer emails, personal daily blessings and reminders of His love that we hold close to our heart, and time to listen more intently to the most sufficient rule book we have ever been provided with.
It is Friday. We are in it up to our eyebrows. But the certainty of Sunday has already been promised!
Cling to the faith, let go of the toilet paper.
--LG
Amen, Lindsay!!❤ There are so many things to be thankful for and to look forward to. Keep focused on His promise❤
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