I should have done a spiritual “Good Friday.”
Yesterday, I did ponder and give thanks for the awful humiliation Jesus endured on the Cross. However, I was also in “catching up mode” having been gone the early part of the week to Austin to move our Heartlight servers to a new location. (See the “It is Crazy Here!” post from several days ago — and yes, all of us have been dealing with the aftermath of the move ever since.)
I groused and moaned to myself through most of the day about how everything was taking three times longer than it should and how everything I did led to something messed up that required more effort. By bed time, I was exhausted and a bit frustrated that I had frittered away such a beautiful day, such a special day, on a ton of simple but time-intensive tasks that I had not expected to be waiting for me. As I heard myself whine to my wife Donna, I was offended at my own pettiness! I was revolting “to my own self”!
I confessed to Donna, “Here I am whining about a hard day full of complications on the day when I should be thinking about all that Jesus endured for me on the cross.”
She replied calmly, “And yet think about how much you got done and how much was done for you!”
Hmm …
Thankfully we look at Friday — or Thursday or Wednesday, depending on how you reckon the day Jesus was actually crucified — as “Good Friday” because we see it through the lens of the resurrection. We live on the resurrection side of the Cross. Because of the awful night and day of trial, crucifixion, and burial, I know the love of God for me. And because of the resurrection, I know that Jesus’ awful day was not wasted, but accomplished so much for me — for all of us — even when it seems nothing else goes right.
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:57-58 TNIV)
