I know Sunday's coming, but...101/366

Easter is, by far, my favorite day of the year. 

To celebrate the Risen Saviour with other Jesus followers is a sweet, satisfying thing. On Friday Satan and his minions knew they were victorious! They were confident death had taken the life of the Son of God, the Hope of the world. The quiet of Saturday must have been deafening as they continued to rejoice in their win. But Sunday revealed that the horrors of Friday and the silent waiting of Saturday were all part of God's eternal plan.

That being said, today is Good Friday. 
But Friday didn't feel good.
It felt anything but good.

I want to issue a challenge- as we look forward to celebrating victory because we know what happened two days later, let's not forget that we still have to deal with the reality of Friday. We know what Sunday accomplished. That gives us hope and joy. It does not erase the reality of the pain and the misery and the feelings our Fridays dredge up.

If you are in a "Friday", if you feel beaten, if you feel abandoned, if you are crying out; "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" please know you are not alone. Jesus is very much aware of what that feels like. As He hung on the cross those very words were loudly wrenched from the deepest part of His being-because for the first time in all of eternity, the Father and the Son were separated. 

Why? 

Because God is a Holy God.
Sin cannot be in His presence. 
And on the cross, Jesus bore our sins. 
Every single one of them.
For every single person.
Past, present, future. 
Is it any wonder he was in agony? 
Yes, the physical beating, the nails and the hanging from the cross were excruciating. But I believe that being separated from the Father was what caused Him to cry out.

Yes, Sunday is coming, 
but we must let Friday and Saturday do their work in our lives.
If we downplay it we lie only to ourselves and we miss the full victory of Sunday.

Friday has to have its day. 
We must deal with sin, ugliness, betrayal, suffering, fear, forgiveness and loss-
we cannot afford to ignore it.
Saturday, 
the waiting time, the mourning of hope and plans lost, 
the evaluating of everything we thought we knew to be true, 
has its place.
Once their work is done, 
we can celebrate "Sunday" like there is no tomorrow.

When the next Friday of your life comes,
when overwhelming pain and loss and sorrow weigh heavy, 
feel the feelings you need to feel, 
don't think you have to downplay or deny them
don't be satisfied to ignore them.

And when you are in the limbo of Saturday, 
tempted to lose hope-
rest, wait, 
trust the truth, 
not your feelings.

Call to mind other Fridays and Saturdays you have lived through
remember His faithfulness to bring you to Sunday.
Even when it doesn't "feel" like it,
they are all part of God's eternal plan.
I've read the end of the story, God wins. 
And when He does,
He makes all of the Fridays and Saturdays disappear.

Isaiah 53

Who has believed what he has heard from us?

    And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
    and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
    and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
    a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
    he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs
    and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
    smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
    and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
    we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
    yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
    and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
    so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
    and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
    stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
    and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
    and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
    he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
    he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
    make many to be accounted righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
    and makes intercession for the transgressors.