Monday, May 9, 2016

A Wonderful Yucky Day

Hello Emmanuel,

Happy rainy, yucky Monday.  I admit, I don’t relate with a lot of people and their perspective on Mondays.  My work week doesn’t start on Monday.  I’m not sure when it starts.  Sunday?  Wednesday?  I guess it depends on what my week entails.  Either way, I know most normal people see Monday as the beginning of another week of working to pay off bills. 

Still, that doesn’t mean it can’t be a happy one.  Consider that, on Monday, the week is still a blank slate.  You have some influence on how it will go.  By Wednesday or Thursday, you will have already decided how your week has gone and there is no changing that.  But today?  Today you get the opportunity to try and make your week go as well as you can.  Be optimistic.

Optimism is something I had to learn.  It wasn’t a default in our home or community growing up.  If I were honest, I’d admit that I initially decided to be optimistic in order to rebel against the negative status quo.  Once I learned that optimism had its own perks, I stuck with it.  Then I became a pastor…. Hmmmm…

I saw in a recent blog that pastoring is a highly discouraging career.  I won’t disagree, however I don’t think that is so unlike other professions.  It’s too easy for many working people to become the abject pessimist around their work for various reasons:  people don’t think; the job doesn’t pay; there is no room to grow; it’s boring; the boss is bossy; the work place is a mess; someone stole my lunch….. blah, blah, blah.

But it’s Monday.  No one has yet decided how your week will go.  And while you may not have much to say about what happens around you, you have everything to say about your attitude.  Think like God has been good to you.  Walk like God has been good to you.  Talk like God has been good to you.  Live like it.  You might be surprised.  You might become someone’s ray of sunshine on a gray, wet, yucky Monday. 

Besides, God HAS been good to you.  Isn’t that all the reason you need to be the optimist?

God is Good,


Pastor Joe

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