Mondays

Mondays are foggy for me.  I think it has something to do with the spiritual, emotional, relational, and even physical intensity that goes into most Sundays.  In any case, most Mondays I wake up and check my pulse to make sure I'm alive and then spend most of the morning trying to find my brain.  I know a lot of pastors who take Mondays off.  I would do the same, but I don't want to feel this way on my day off.

On Mondays I find myself reviewing Sundays: what I said, what I should have said, and what I wish I hadn't have said.  I remember who was at church... and who wasn't... and wonder what's the deal.  I think through conversations I had both before and after the worship service.  I think through the Small Group we lead on Sunday nights and wonder if it's really making a difference.  Mondays are a gut-check for me as we look at numbers, both attendance and giving.  Are we going in the right direction?  Are we going to make it?  Do I have any idea what I'm doing?

It's kind of weird.  Deep inside, we know it's not about us... but on Mondays, if we're not careful, it's all about us.  That's why spending time with God is really helpful.  This morning, in my Bible reading time, this verse was part of my day:

"My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

What a faith builder!!!

God has called me (and all of us) to do one simple thing: die to self.  He has not called us to improve ourselves or try harder to please Him.  He knows we can't.  The reason so many of us find ourselves stuck and frustrated with the Christian life is because we have bought into the lie that we have to work in order to earn God's favor.  The inevitable conclusion we come to with this is this: we can't.  It won't work.

Most Mondays I wake up with this gnawing frustration of what could have been done better, as if I could control any of it.  This verse of Scripture reminds me that it's not about me.  It's not about my abilities, strengths, weaknesses, or desires.  All God asks me to do is die, let it go and trust Him to do His work.

When I stand in myself, all I see are inadequacies.  When I die to myself, those inadequacies die as well.  When I trust Jesus to live in me and through me... He has no inadequacies.  None!  And I think (because I did find my brain this morning) that one thing He wants me to learn this Monday morning is that as long as we allow Him to live through us... that's all we have to do.

With that in mind, the Monday fog is clearing away and I'm planning on having a victorious day!  Hope you have one as well!