Oh God, Its Monday !

Oh God, Its Monday !  I have heard that exclamation many times.  But rarely do I hear: Thank God its Monday !

Thank God its Friday ! This is so popular that a marketing genius has named his chain of bars/restaurants after the well known acronym TGIF.  To hear the exclamation is a routine weekly occurence.  It has become an accepted greeting weekly on Friday mornings at the office and seems almost universally to be accepted as normal.  The responses to the greetings are almost always ones of agreement.

So why do most of us bounce along from week to week ?  Exclamations of Thank God its Friday followed in 72 short hours with Oh God its Monday; usually muttered under the breath.  This seems obvious and well understood does it not ?  Friday starts the weekend when we are free to have fun, to get drunk, and party down.  Friday starts the times of recreation.  Friday starts the time when I can do whatever I want to do.  I am in charge now and no one can tell me what to do.  I have saved my entertainment money for the weekend and no one will stand in my way as I go out to have fun.  When I want to sleep in, no alarm needs to waken me.  When I want to stay out late on Friday and Saturday, I do not fear the requirements of getting up in the morning.  Ah, whoopee, I think I am free. TGIF. Thank God it is Friday.

For some of the more religious folks, it is still a heart felt Thank God its Friday.  Friday night is family night or date night. Come Saturday I am free to do the work of the Lord instead of having to earn money.  And Sunday, ah Sunday, the Lord's day, the day when I can go to church and get my weekly emotional fix so I feel clean again before I have to go out into "the World" on Monday morning. 

Ah, but this God we weekly give thanks to one day and moan to three days later, what is His perspective of these things.  Does God favor Fridays or Sundays over Mondays ?  {As an aside, it is interesting to note that we have named each day of the week after some demonic false god.}  Well, let's look at that for a few  moments.

The greatest universal reason for favoring Fridays over Mondays seems to be that work starts on Mondays and recreation starts on Fridays.  But, the strange thing about this -- God already gave us a gift that we can take pleasure in all our work.  I have never found a parallel gift cited that gives us pleasure in all our recreation.  Indeed, if the resulting hang-overs, auto accidents, and sun burns are indicators, there seems to be a high correlation between many people's recreation and genuinely painful experiences.  From an historic perspective, men seemed to actually like their work so much that God had to instruct them to take a day of rest.  It was not until quite a long-time after the labor unions started organizing and forming voting blocks to influence the government regulators that we started having two and three day weekends.  It is a simple observation that the most productive and successful people in our society almost all work at least a six day work-week and the less religious among them work seven days.  Not because they have to, but because the enjoy it.

Ah, but the enemy of our souls, with support from some very manipulative people, has managed to indoctrinate most of our society with a false idea.  Most folks believe that work is painful and bad and recreation time is pleasant and good.  Why has this been done ?  Well, if you are convinced that all work is unpleasant and painful, then it is much easier to keep you doing a job you do not like which God never intended you to do.  And, if you believe that all recreation is supposed to be fun, then you are quickly convinced to go out and waste countless dollars on recreation in the false hope that it will make you feel better.  Have you ever noticed that there are plenty of successful businesses standing by to rake in the money you are spending in your chase to have fun?

But, if we do not have the weekends when would we go to church ?  When would we do the work of the Lord ?  First, if you have been called by God, if you are one of the called out ones, then you are the Church.  How can you go to church if you are the Church.  Paul writes about what to do when you come together.  But, there is no suggestion that when you come together is to be weekly at some auditorium.  Indeed, there is ample basis to believe that coming together has to do with getting connected and working together.  That can happen at the end of an aisle in Walmart, or standing at the next machine in a factory, even better than it can happen in an auditorium.  When the writer of Hebrews says, "Do not forsake assembling..."  The language has to do with getting structural pieces connected properly.  It does not have to do with getting them all into one room.  Moreover, there is no scriptural basis for you doing the work of the Lord on the weekends but not while you are "at work".  Why would any one accept being stuck in a job that was not doing the work of the Lord ?  So the religious propaganda not withstanding, why would any Godly person favor weekends over week days?

The Book indicates that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning, including Monday mornings.  This is the day the Lord has made.  Now we need to decide.  Do we choose to grump and moan, "Oh God, its Monday."  Or do we choose to rejoice and be glad in it.

Oh God, thank you that my name is in the Lamb's Book of Life.  Whoopee,  I am yours still today.