Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me-everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4: 8-9 (NLT)
Monday.
When’s the last time we gave Monday a fair shake?
Be honest. What’s our perspective and perception of the day? Honestly.
The weekend is over and many of us are back at it and into the usual grind of each day of the week. The break is over and whatever rest we were supposed to get to rejuvenate us-well, we could use just a bit more. Those of us who were up and down with weekend sports find ourselves Monday-morning quarterbacking the games of the weekend.
It’s Monday and our televisions, radios, newspapers and water-cooler conversations are revved back up to provide the fodder to fill our minds with enough stuff to keep us on the flipside of joy for the rest of the week. And we know that will happen, and yet we allow those sour perspectives to be deposited into our memory banks. The economy is still at a standstill or worse. The political landscape is locked in ideological battles. The debates continue to reign as to the values which our nation will embrace in the years to come.
Monday. And it’s probably raining, too. Somewhere.
But take a look at Paul’s approach and perspective.
I don’t know if Paul was writing on a Monday when he penned the words above to the church at Philippi, but he could have been. And take a look again at what he said. While others were allowing their memory banks to be filled with all the troubles of the day-maybe even something we find ourselves doing at times, on Mondays and other days-Paul tells us to deposit something better into the space in our brains, when he encourages us to…
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
Even on Mondays. Or maybe especially on Mondays. We may be surprised at how our perspective toward every brand new day changes. We may be surprised by all wonderful things which begin to occur all around us. We may be surprised to learn that we have been missing a pretty cool day-by not giving Monday a fair shake. Or Tuesday. Or Wednesday. Or any of them. We may be surprised by the new perspective that we have toward the day-now that we change our focus on things that are true, right, lovely, pure and excellent.
There’s a story of a ship that had sailed from the Orient, on a long voyage around South America, in an area that was new and unfamiliar to the Captain and crew. As a result, they had misjudged their needed water supply, and so somewhere off the coast of South America they ran out of fresh water to drink.
So when a passing ship was spotted, the Captain of the distressed vessel had the signalman signal to the ship: “Can you share your water?” And the response came back: “Dip where you are.” The distressed Captain became irritated and repeated his request, but again the response came back-“Dip where you are.”
So a bucket and rope were rigged together, and the Captain had the crew lower it into the salty ocean. When they lifted up the bucket of water, and the Captain put his finger into it, touched his finger to his tongue, to his amazement he found that the water was sweet, fresh water. What he hadn’t known was that they were in the center of a mile-wide current where the Amazon River was still making its surging rush into the sea.
It may even have been a Monday. But it became a better day right then with that moment of unexpected hope found in the middle of a salt-filled ocean. It’s the kind of reminder, and the kind of hope, that the God who loves you and never leaves you is always providing. Reminding us that no matter what we face we should always…
“Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.”
What is your perspective for Mondays? What’s your perspective for the other days? Or toward the rest of your life? It may depend on what you put in your mind, into your memory bank, into that reserve that you draw on when you run out of water or when you don’t know what the week has in store. What do you draw on when you need the strength and hope to get through whatever you’re facing?
And what I’m suggesting to you this morning is that no matter what condition you find yourself in, no matter how burdened you are, no matter what you’re facing in life, no matter what you’ve just been through, no matter whether the day is cloudy or gray, Monday or Friday, there is renewing hope bubbling around, under and within you, in the person of the One who is always there.
Hope that is always present now, and in the future, in the person of the One our faith assures us is eternally with us-the person of Jesus Christ.
Hope that’s always there-on all our Mondays, too.
In His Name-Scott
Copyright 2011. Scott L. Whitaker. All rights reserved.
