Invariably Monday had to happen.  I find them particularly interesting following holidays.  Now, I’m not one who usually takes Mondays off.  As some pastor once said, “I would never choose to feel that badly on my day off.”  Okay, it’s not a day of doom and gloom, but there is something that’s fairly sanctifying and challenging about Mondays…every one of them.  On regularly scheduled weeks Mondays follow our worship gatherings.  If there is to be a challenge to what we learned on Sunday, it’s sure to show up Monday.

What about holidays?

What about being grateful today…Monday?

Part of the problem is the beating we take both from inside our own flesh and the external world on “Black Friday” (which, as if it’s not enough, leads to “Cyber Monday”).  I mean, we can’t even have one day set aside for what should be contentment before we are plotting our courses to shatter our contentment with more stuff at the wee hours of morning after our tryptophan hangover.  Then, we travel, bring down boxes of Christmas decorations (at least it used to wait until then), and we (some) drag ourselves to church to hear an uplifting message from the Minor Prophets speaking prophetically of judgment and doom (I think there was some “good news” in there too).

It’s Monday.  We’re tired and feeling anything but grateful for the moment.

It’s been said many times related to Easter weekend, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!”  Amen.  Yes.  We know that the cross gave way to an empty tomb and victory secured.  But let me extend that hope just a tad… “It’s Sunday, but Monday’s comin’!”  That’s right.  The resurrection on that Easter Sunday morning means that He is still alive on Mondays.  Our victory (for those in Christ) is still secured and we are still equipped to live in light of the resurrection, and for that we must be, should be, ever grateful.

So, I encourage all of us, remember today that this world will dupe you with superficial joys during the holiday season, but they have a way of leaving us empty all the while we feel so stuffed.  You have been given all you need to live a life of contentment, gratitude, joy, and light in a lost world…

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

(2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV)