of Wishing Our Lives Away

Recently I was thinking about those, Monday morning “Blah’s.” You know the ones I mean. Those, “I can’t believe the weekend is over already,” blah’s. Those, “I wish it were Friday already,” blues. Ever been there? I know you have. I’m sure we all have at one time or another. Perhaps that has even become your weekly ritual.

As I reflected on this “hurry up workday” mentality that many of us have, I couldn’t help but wonder if we aren’t just "wishing our lives away." Have you ever thought about that? Could it be that many of us are just "wishing our lives away?" Now that's kind of a depressing thought, isn't it?

Why are we so anxious to speed through five workdays in order to enjoy (presumably enjoy) two days off? That hardly seems like a fair trade to me! Does our workweek suck that badly that it has become nothing more than a drudgery to be endured in anticipation of the all-glorious weekend? The fact is, not all weekends are "glorious" either. So where does that leave us?

Are we missing something?

What if we were to make a genuine concerted effort to treat each and every day as “the day the Lord hath made” and to genuinely seek to “rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24), regardless of what day of the week the calendar says it is? What if we started to really believe that today, regardless of where in the week our “today” really falls, we might just be God’s answer to someone else’s prayer? What if our goal for today, regardless if today is a workday or not, is to BE a blessing to someone else (Romans 12:14)? Would that change our perception of the day? I wonder.

What if we went to work each and every day with the attitude of being a “Christian in a secular workplace” rather than just being a person who “works in a secular workplace who also happens to profess to be a Christian?” Would that change anything?

Suppose we really did conduct all our activities, be they work related or pleasure, as “working for the Lord, not men” (Colossians 3:23).  Would that change our outlook on the week? What if we were to “really” take our Christian faith to work with us? Would that change anything?

The older I get, the more I’ve come to notice that days race into weeks, weeks race into months, and months race into years. Now combine that truth with the proverbial “Monday morning blah’s,” and I would argue that we really are, “Wishing our lives away.”

Perhaps, instead of bemoaning the start of another work-week, we would do well to see each day as a divine gift and opportunity to bless and minister someone else. Perhaps the secret to slowing down time is to use the time we’ve been given in a more God-honoring way. Perhaps the secret is to not just give Jesus a once-per-week lip service, but rather to seek to really serve Him each and every day. I cannot help but wonder what would happen if we were to spend as much energy getting excited about daily serving Jesus as we do bemoaning the workday and length of time before the next weekend. 

But then again, if that is too much trouble, we can always just continue on the present course of “Wishing Our Lives Away.” Now that I think about it, I suppose even that can be a blessing for someone else; the undertaker.

Careful what you wish for; you might just get it.

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons