Most Monday mornings I approach my keyboard and open up the blog editor and stare at the screen with a little dribble of saliva hanging from the corner of my mouth and resting upon my right pectoral muscle. My mind is still somewhere between the end of Sunday evening service and the toothpaste bottle in my Monday morning bathroom experience. I’m usually wondering what business I have trying to communicate any type of spiritual substance and, every single Monday morning, I think about posting the following:
“Due to a tired body, empty mind, windless spirit and constipated communication ability, Jeff will not seek to offer anything edifying to those of you who have chosen to stop by the blog today. I would ask for your forgiveness but, frankly, it is Monday and I really don’t care what you think because I’m tired, empty, windless and spiritually constipated. I truly hope you enjoy a nice Monday because I have chosen not to.” -Joyfully, Jeff
Then I recall that many of you who read feel the same way about starting your work week after long Sundays and I start to surmise that I’m a bit of a whiner. Are there any of you that leap out of bed when the Monday morning alarm summons you to the realm of the living? Do you do a little twirl with your mouth wide in smile, emitting your frothy morning breath all over the bedroom as you posture yourself in irrepressible delight in starting another work week? I must confess that, with the exception of the morning breath, this is not my usual experience. Monday is not some cute, innocent child whom we should embrace. Monday is an intrusive jerk who kicks me in my shins and mutters, “C’mon, fatty, time to get it in gear.” Monday is a punk who must experience a beat down.
Here’s how I commence to putting the hurt on the Monday menace: I open up my Bible and ask the Lord to straighten out my attitude before I ruin somebody’s day. Trusting God to energize my fatigued frame, fill my empty mind, breathe into my windless spirit and unclog my constipated communication ability…I submit my limitations to His omnipotence by faith. His word begins to correct my thinking, orient my emotions, sweeten my outlook and I start to feel saved again.
It works every time. Here’s what He gave me this morning to keep me from violently shredding my Monday:
“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.” – Isaiah 40:29 {ESV}.
Since He has promised for eternity to give power and increased strength to those of us who find ourselves faint and without might, I just decided to believe Him and welcome Him to recalibrate me. I’m grateful that God is bigger than you and me in ways that are constantly unfolding before us. It is not that God has been found insufficient; it is that few have leaned upon Him in complete abandonment to say, “It’s all on you today, Father. I’ve nothing to offer.” Believe it or not, He blesses this attitude in us when it comes from an honest heart, weary along the journey. He doesn’t chide or scoff at such weakness – He ordains it so that we will turn to Him when Monday scowls at us…or any other day for that matter. So go ahead and confess your weaknesses, bad attitudes, demotivated spirit and listless confidence. But don’t stop there. Make sure when you have vomited out all that is lacking in you that you attach a welcome for God to remedy what ails you. Believe His book. Walk in His truth whether you “feel it” or not. He is always ready. He is always able. He is eager to infuse with strength anyone who leans hard upon Him.
He’s God, seven days a week. And, yes, that would include Mondays too.
Tell Monday to use Factcheck…. you are down 30 so he needs another moniker to hang on you! 🙂
Relying on the Word instead of listening to anything Monday has to offer is always preferable but sometimes it is good to get a dig of your own in on a Monday?!?