“TGIM”

“TGIM”

Good Morning Friends,

I imagine that Jesus cursed the fig tree on a Monday and overturned the tables of the money changers on Monday as well. I am just saying, even though I cannot be for sure, that maybe this is part of the reason that Mondays get a bad rap. But the first day of the work week is really a great time of prayer for us in Immokalee. Monday holidays now come with a mixed blessing. While most of the world links this back to a day with moaning, miseries and madness, we have opened it up as a day of work but also a day of prayer. Sure we still wake up with a list of things to do, projects to complete, decisions to make, people to call, problems to solve and issues to confront. But instead of cursing it, the Spirit in us says, “TGIM.”

Scripture: “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.”

Matthew 6:34 (NRSV)

Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

Mark 11:15-17 (NRSV)

In the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. “Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”

Mark 11:20-25 (NRSV)

Jesus said, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

John 14:14 (NIV)

Message: God ordained it in the Garden of Eden after the fall. God said, by the sweat on the brow, these people are going to earn bread. And we say, I Owe, I Owe. It’s off to work I go. Thankfully it can be made more bearable with a whistle and the tune of singing dwarfs. Of course there has to be a certain amount of work to be done. God has engineered it that way. And maybe, just maybe it is not always the devil that makes it difficult or a drudge. The amazing thing is that the Spirit can turn that boredom into a blessing. Jesus can turn that monotony into meaning. God can turn that drudgery into dignity. God can turn that grind into glory. Friends, we can sing that Peter, Paul and Mary song Monday, Monday with new lyrics.  Friends, today’s trouble is enough for today. So too Sunday’s worship is enough for Sunday, but do not expect it to last the week. We can learn a lot about God through work with the right attitude. We can learn a lot by praying on Mondays to start the week of work.

Pray we realize that every day is a holy day. Pray we are thankful for the work we have. Pray that even on a Tuesday we can thank God for Mondays. Pray we realize that God is just waiting for us to come to the throne of grace and ask. Pray we learn the power of worship throughout the week. Pray that we ask God to turn our rat races into holy pilgrimages. Pray that we run the good race.

Blessings,

John Lawson