Thank God it's Friday

The slogan, TGIF, was a popular one for me when I was growing up. The broadcasting company ABC had the nightly television group of shows which played wholesome family television shows. As a kid I didn’t think much about it, it was a time when you could say God without getting in trouble and you could use the slogan Thank God It's Friday without getting in trouble.

This Friday is a time of reflection. We call it good Friday which for some it is just another Friday or it is the Friday before a Sunday in which they receive many gifts. This Friday is a Friday in which some of us will reflect on the most important thing that happened in the entire world. This Friday is truly a Friday in which we need to be thanking God.

Good Friday is a day where Christians around the world come together recognizing the death of a man, and though He was a man he was and is 100% God. The mystery of this seems to have been lost in the fairytales of our childhood, where a large magical bunny runs around poorly hiding eggs. I suppose the magic is that a bunny is laying eggs and hiding them, but I would much rather reflect on something much more mysterious.

To reflect upon our Lord is a great mystery and yet reveals many profound things. This Friday, let us recognize and  thank Jesus Christ for what he did on that Cross, let us reflect on how He bore the burdens of our sins, reflect on how He has washed us clean, reflect on how He calls us child. This Friday is certainly a good Friday because our God is good and for no other reason.

So I say Thank God Its Friday to you. I say it with proud humility knowing that this coming Friday is the Friday in which we celebrate our propitiation, our salvation, our redemption – and we celebrate this because our God is Good!

May we reflect on these words the next three days:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

- John 3:16-21

The Sun

There are moments in my life when I feel most alive. A few that comes to mind for me. One is when I was young and living in Texas and I would go cliff jumping, it seemed so scary at first jumping into the water from such a high height but once I did it there was no turning back; as my body impacted the water the rush of life seemed to flow through me.

Another is when I was in Croatia, the camp that we would help out with was in a small town called Fuzine and the lake that was in the town was freezing. When I was there for the summer I would go run and exercise and then after I would jump into the icy water. The rush of needles would encompass my body every time.

This last one is not nearly as exciting or adrenaline producing but it happens more than any of the others. It is the moment the sun warms my skin on a cool day. This moment tends to warm me from the outside in, and it continually reminds me of my gracious heavenly fathers love.

The sun is something that we cannot live without and is something that we can never really think about not being a part of our daily lives. It is interesting though that at certain times it feels as though it brings more life than any other. There hasn’t been a day that the sun hasn’t risen but there have been days where I haven’t fully recognized its brilliance.

There are certain moments in our life that we find to be more entrancing than others. I know when I first moved to Arizona I found myself enjoying the sunsets more often than I did when I was in Texas. It wasn’t that it was a different sun but it was that the air is different in Arizona where it makes it appear different when it is setting.

I write this in more of a reflection to myself, but I do hope that it encourages you all to take time out of the day and reflect of God. We often times go throughout a day never giving thanks for some of the most essential things, like the sun. I know at times I rely on the feeling of jumping of a cliff into water to make me feel alive but our Lord is so much more than just that exhilarating feel that we get. He is more than that feeling we get in worship and He is more than a genie in a bottle waiting for our beckoning.

Our God is the God that brought the sun into existence and told the earth to rotate around it. He is the one that made sure that the earth wasn’t too far nor too close to the sun but placed it just right so that there would be life.