Dreading Saturday

Most people love Saturday. Its stuck between Friday (still a work day) and Sunday (a day to recover.) If asked a thousand people if Saturday should be longer, I would guess a thousand of them would say yes.

But I hate Saturdays.

Yesterday we celebrated Good Friday, a day we we remember the Passion (suffering) of Jesus who died on the cross. Tomorrow, we celebrate Easter, the day where Jesus was raised by God from the grave. To celebrate the fact that life has conquered death. But what about Saturday?

Imagine the actual Saturday between the day Jesus died and the Resurrection. What was going through his disciples' minds? Now I have heard preachers preach that when we go through times of trouble (Friday) we need to remember SUNDAY'S COMING! But we know the end of the story. The disciples did not know what was happening nor what was coming. To them Friday meant death - death of their friend, their teacher, their Lord. There was no getting around it. There was no hope, no vision of the things to come. Just despair, confusion, anxiety and fear. That Saturday must have been the longest Saturday in history.

If I am truthful, I am living in Saturday. When I talk of things that cause pain and death and suffering (see yesterday's post) I live in Saturday. I feel despair because I do not see how this pain could end. I feel confusion because I do not know how to navigate through the day. I feel anxiety because things are not going as I would like them to go. I feel fear because I do not believe this death I experience will ever be turned back into life. It seems as though my Saturday has been lasting a real long time. I don't know that Sunday is coming. In fact, I feel that Sunday will never come. But that is my lack of faith because I have experienced Sundays in my life before. And I forget. There have been dark times and I have been brought out through them. There have been struggles I thought would never end but they did. And the disciples thought that Jesus was lost to them forever. But He rose back to life. He gave to them a new life as well.

Think of the change in Jesus' followers. On Saturday, they were locked in a room of despair. But on Sunday, they were changed and empowered to change the world. So if you are in Saturday (like me) then I suggest we stick together. Imagine together a life of fullness that might await. Believing in a new life coming is not fantasy. It is a promise made by One who knows what was meant to be. It is made by One who has the power to change the present. It is made by one who knows the pain of Friday, the silence of Saturday and the joy of Sunday yet to come. Let's remind each other of the hope we await.