Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Why Saturday is Filled with Hope

by Andrew Cromwell 

This weekend we celebrate the event that is the lynchpin that holds all of human history together—the Resurrection of Jesus.  No other figure in human history is as important and no other event so crucial.  Our very calendar is split in half by Jesus.  At the same time, no other figure is so controversial—no one so vilified on the one hand and worshipped on the other.   

And so, this weekend, all across the world, people will wake up on Sunday, don their best and go to church.  For many, it will be the only service they attend all year.  They go for many reasons—tradition, worship, family, guilt, celebration—but they go because of this God-become-Man who visited our Earth two thousand years ago. 

But before Sunday, comes Saturday. Saturday is the day before the Resurrection. The day before the celebration of death turned to life.  For those who followed Jesus and walked with Him so many years ago, Saturday was a day of uncertainty, of loss and of doubt.   

On Saturday, Jesus was still in the tomb.   

On Saturday, all their dreams appeared to be dead. 

On Saturday, the future was filled with fear and dread. 

Have you ever experienced a Saturday?  Saturdays are the moments in your life when the light appears to have gone out on the bright path of your future.  They are the times when you begin to lose hope for your marriage.  The moments when you start to believe that you're just not going to be able to overcome the challenges of life.   

On Saturday, you lose your job. 

On Saturday, the doctor gives you the bad news. 

On Saturday, you find yourself repeating the same destructive pattern you swore you'd never repeat again. 

We all have experienced Saturdays.  Maybe it's Saturday in your life right now and you've pretty much given up.  Perhaps you have stopped believing that tomorrow can hold something new and different.

Let me encourage you.  It's not time to throw in the towel! Saturdays are followed by Sundays. Crucifixions can be transformed into resurrections. Death can be turned into life. And your situation, no matter how dead and impossible, can be turned around. 

It's not that Sundays are guaranteed.  We all know plenty of people whose lives seem to be an endless sequence of Saturdays.  They have been caught in the vicious cycle of life's downturns and don't know how to get out.  They need the key to escape. 

The key to seeing your Saturday turn into a Sunday is knowing the One who owns the calendar.  When you know and follow Him, you discover what the disciples discovered—He loves to turn impossible situations into moments of divine intervention. 

Saturdays are simply opportunities for Sundays.  The darker the Saturday, the brighter the Sunday.

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