President's Day, Three Day Weekends and the Fear of Death

I trust everyone had a wonderful President's Day weekend! 

Is it just me or do Saturday and Sunday feel totally different when you know you have Monday off?  Why?  Is it because we have no fear of Monday?  The imposing death of Monday is not there - and even though it has only been moved to Tuesday, the one day makes such a huge difference in how I live on Saturday and Sunday.

I have been struck by the power of how an uncertain future impacts how I live in the present.  If being delivered from "death" on Mondays transforms Saturdays and Sundays how much more could being delivered from death to life transform EVERYday - all of life?

Didymus

Comments

[Philomena]

Didymus,
Thanks for the post.
In what way do you think Monday is "death"? I have an idea, but I was wondering if we were thinking along the same lines.

[Didymus]

Philomena,

I guess I'm thinking of it as "the end of freedom"??? The end of control???
I'm not sure exactly. Great question though. This whole thing is a baby idea - but I've noticed the "feeling" whenever I have a 3 day weekend.

What are you thinking?

Didymus

[Philomena]

Baby ideas are the most intriguing!
I was thinking along the same lines. "Death" makes me think of loss and on Monday we lose our rest and our freedom to decide what to do and when to do it, even if we enjoy what we're going to do. Knowing that Monday is coming definitely makes a difference to Sunday. I heard that more people sleep badly on Sunday nights than on any other night of the week.

[Didymus]

There is something powerful about having no fear of Monday that deeply impacts the way Sunday "feels" to me. There is something to this, something I want to transfer to real life.

[Thomas More]

I think, to some degree, it is perfectly natural and appropriate to "fear" Monday. Hebrews paints a picture of the Sabbath rest being our image of heaven. Thus, we are most as we should be not when toiling--man's part of the curse--but when resting in Him. Monday-Saturday are work days of the world. They didn't exist before the fall, and won't exist in heaven.

Thus, our bodies are simply responding to the punishment that came to Adam and his children. There's no reason, it seems, to think this is wrong. Sunday is peace. No normal person wants to move from peace (heaven) to warfare (earth).

If your body recoils at the notion of Monday morning, I think you have more reason to work out your salvation with fear and trembling--because if you are not saved, Monday mornings is what you'll have forever. If, however, you long for peace, you have all the more encouragement to fight the fight.

Thomas More

[Thomas More]

PS--Sunday with a Monday holiday is heaven.

[Didymus]

Thanks Tom. I agree with you here.

I would still like to figure out why it is that my "rest" on Sunday feels different when I am off on Monday. Does the curse of Monday color the blessing of Sunday? In other words is our sabbath here always a very imperfect image of Heaven bc of the looming return to Death?

Funny. In my first draft of "President's Day and 3 Day Weekends..." I had a line that went, "I trust we all had a significant day of reflection on and gratitude for our Great Presidents." Right on w/ your post on the subject.
Didymus

[Thomas More]

Yes, I think. Our knowledge of looming death colors our present life. I am currently in the last half of a one week vacation. Monday next is already affecting my attitude on a Friday!! Argh. Part of this is my need to live with today's worries only--very few on vacation--as instructed in Matthew 6. But, again, part is the need to stay sharp to get beyond this life into a realm with no Mondays, only Sundays--or, as I like to say: All weddings and no funerals.

Without the pin prick--or sledge hammer to the head--of Monday and death, we might lose our edge in fighting the fight day after day--see how Eve responded to temptation without the fear of death.

[Didymus]

Mr. More,
It is for this reason that one writer, I can't remember who, says, "death is a gift. If we lived forever with these broken souls we'd NEVER live at all."
Didymus