"Mondays"
Mondays
"On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks."
--H. Allen Smith
I think we start to hate Mondays because of school. I'm at the junior high this morning, it's Monday, and the kids are just kind of dragging around. A lot of them are in a bad mood. The eighth grade girls are in a bad mood, but then eighth grade girls are always in a bad mood. A couple of weeks go it was like they had passed around vicious pills and washed them down with mean juice. It was bad, but then Mondays can be bad. I think that we begin to hate Mondays in school. The school week starts on Monday. The work week tends to start on Mondays and so we begin to hate Mondays. I don't think Mondays are the problem though. One of the students said that he was tired because he had stayed up until three in the morning. His problem isn't Mondays. His problem is weekends.
I think the problem for everyone is weekends. The student who stayed up until three in the morning was probably trying to squeeze as much out of the weekend as possible and stayed up as late as he could because the school week is bad, and the weekends are very good. I did it when I was his age, so I'm sure that is what he did yesterday. Everyone knows that and everyone does that. But perhaps his school week would appear better if he got the proper amount of sleep on Sunday night so Monday would be bearable. See, Mondays aren't the problem, weekends are the problem.
I like Mondays. I have liked Mondays for quite some time. I think I like Mondays because I don't have weekends. So Mondays are just like any other day of the week. It can't be said that my Mondays are just another day of the week after my day off, because even days off are interrupted by a phone call, or a visit, or some person needing something or some emergency. And of course everybody expects the preacher to show up for work on Sundays. A strange thing happens when you don't have weekends - Mondays look a whole lot better. Mondays aren't the problem, weekends are the problem.
We also don't like work. School is like work, we don't like work and both school and work start for most people on Mondays. Therefore, we don't like Mondays. We don't like work because we act like it's a curse. God did curse man in the garden, but the irony is that God created man for work, and work for man before He gave His curse. He actually cursed the ground. Check out the beginning of Genesis. Man's sin was and is choosing to be like God, so God gave us what we wanted - to rule ourselves and feed ourselves. Then God removed us from the Garden and removed His blessing from the ground we were left to work. He cursed that ground so we could get a tiny, tiny taste of what it was like to be our own god. We haven't done well with that model.
Work, though, was meant originally to be good and good for us. Adam's job was to be a stetward of the Garden and the animals. This was before the curse. Man had a purpose in God's kingdom and the purpose was to do the work God hd commissioned for him. By the way - Mondays weren't bad because there weren't weekends to make Mondays something to resent. Work was good because it was work want to please God.
Genesis 2:15-25(NIV)
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." 18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
"On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks."
--H. Allen Smith
I think we start to hate Mondays because of school. I'm at the junior high this morning, it's Monday, and the kids are just kind of dragging around. A lot of them are in a bad mood. The eighth grade girls are in a bad mood, but then eighth grade girls are always in a bad mood. A couple of weeks go it was like they had passed around vicious pills and washed them down with mean juice. It was bad, but then Mondays can be bad. I think that we begin to hate Mondays in school. The school week starts on Monday. The work week tends to start on Mondays and so we begin to hate Mondays. I don't think Mondays are the problem though. One of the students said that he was tired because he had stayed up until three in the morning. His problem isn't Mondays. His problem is weekends.
I think the problem for everyone is weekends. The student who stayed up until three in the morning was probably trying to squeeze as much out of the weekend as possible and stayed up as late as he could because the school week is bad, and the weekends are very good. I did it when I was his age, so I'm sure that is what he did yesterday. Everyone knows that and everyone does that. But perhaps his school week would appear better if he got the proper amount of sleep on Sunday night so Monday would be bearable. See, Mondays aren't the problem, weekends are the problem.
I like Mondays. I have liked Mondays for quite some time. I think I like Mondays because I don't have weekends. So Mondays are just like any other day of the week. It can't be said that my Mondays are just another day of the week after my day off, because even days off are interrupted by a phone call, or a visit, or some person needing something or some emergency. And of course everybody expects the preacher to show up for work on Sundays. A strange thing happens when you don't have weekends - Mondays look a whole lot better. Mondays aren't the problem, weekends are the problem.
We also don't like work. School is like work, we don't like work and both school and work start for most people on Mondays. Therefore, we don't like Mondays. We don't like work because we act like it's a curse. God did curse man in the garden, but the irony is that God created man for work, and work for man before He gave His curse. He actually cursed the ground. Check out the beginning of Genesis. Man's sin was and is choosing to be like God, so God gave us what we wanted - to rule ourselves and feed ourselves. Then God removed us from the Garden and removed His blessing from the ground we were left to work. He cursed that ground so we could get a tiny, tiny taste of what it was like to be our own god. We haven't done well with that model.
Work, though, was meant originally to be good and good for us. Adam's job was to be a stetward of the Garden and the animals. This was before the curse. Man had a purpose in God's kingdom and the purpose was to do the work God hd commissioned for him. By the way - Mondays weren't bad because there weren't weekends to make Mondays something to resent. Work was good because it was work want to please God.
Genesis 2:15-25(NIV)
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." 18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." 19 Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, ' for she was taken out of man." 24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. 25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
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