Seeing Mondays Differently

It's Monday morning and the whole week lies before you. What makes this day, this week, any different than any other? Or are you stuck in a cycle of repeating dull and useless Mondays? That is what it feels like without direction, dreams, vision and hope. Without these things from the Lord we are only existing, scraping through, maintaining. It makes for a very dull life. We eat. We sleep. We die. But we have been made for so much more.

Peace and joy cannot be bought. It doesn't matter how many toys you have, what kind of vacations you take, how many friends are listed on your FaceBook. Such things are ever changing and can never be depended upon for happiness. We can have three cars in the driveway, a healthy portfolio, the best job in the world and Mondays can still feel dull, boring, empty. These things are all temporary and have no eternal impact on us at all, unless they are part of the visions, dreams, and direction the Lord has given to us.

Think of the worse possible thing that could happen to you. Could you praise the Lord in that situation? If you were left with nothing, reduced to great poverty and even your health was taken from you, could you still praise him? Would he be your only desire? The purpose of our life is not work. The purpose of our life is not play. It is not accomplishment. It is not about feeling good. It isn't even about knowledge. The purpose of our life is relationship and relationship happens regardless of situations and circumstances.

You aren't only married if you are well off. You have promised to love in all situations in life because you are companions from beginning to end. However, you have a relationship that is far greater than marriage, although there are similarities. It is a covenant relationship where you have promised to love with all your heart, soul, mind, body and strength. Our relationship with Jesus is higher, deeper and wider than any marriage and this relationship exists in all situations and circumstances of our life. He is our one desire as Job expressed after everything was stripped from him:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,
Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27)

This is our reality on this Monday morning. He is our living hope who adds colour to everything we do. My "doing" does not bring me joy but my being in him causes joy to overflow in me to everyone around me. The type of job I have, if even I have one, does not sustain me but my relationship with Jesus provides me with everything I need to have an abundant life.

I don't expect people without the Spirit to understand our shared hope but I expect you to know and to treat this day with great respect because it is the day the Lord has given to us. It is a day with him. It is a day of celebration. It is a day of expressed hope. It is a day of joy, trust, love because he is with us in it. He is the giver of all things, including dreams, visions and direction. All these things are focused on him, for his purpose and walking in it gives us tremendous joy. On this Monday morning we know that our Redeemer lives and we know it with an assurance that surpasses Job's.

So sing, dance, shout and praise him with all you have within you. Let the world know that we see Mondays differently, that we see every day differently. He has given us the air to breathe but more than that, he has given us himself that we would know the greatest joy, of seeing him and knowing him today.