Holy Week 2020 Friday

Good morning friends

I am writing to you on this Good Friday 2020 with the sun streaming in strong and showing all the dusty places around our furniture…but it is deceptive because outside the temperatures are hovering just above freezing. 

Good Friday is always an unusual day for a Christian, or so it has been for me. We go about the events of living out our fairly normal routine – maybe a holiday from work and school – but still chores to be done and such…yet always in the shadow of remembering the events of the Crucifixion. 

Growing up, my mom instilled in us the ability to live in this side by side world and I am rather grateful for it. 

She would remind me throughout the day that this was a great day of pain for my Lord and while we were usually visiting family and preparing for the big Easter celebration, we carried with us an attitude of respect and reverence over it all. 

We would have given up something we like during Lent and we would have eaten non-meat dishes on Fridays as part of our observance so, of course, this was held to on the most important Friday of the forty days. 

I remember once we were visiting her family in Louisville and were downtown on Good Friday. We passed a sandwich place that had a display of Sub sandwiches in the window and this was long before Jimmy John’s was even a blip on the radar. 

To my eyes that beautiful loaf of yummy carbs loaded up with an assortment of deli meat and fresh sliced cheeses looked quite appealing and my mom agreed and then reminded me….it was Friday. A very important Friday. And maybe we could get one of those another day but not today. And we walked on by.

But we never went back and we never got one. 

I have eaten many a good sandwich (and salads and soups and entrees and desserts), but that sandwich I never ate is one of my most highly remembered meals. 

It has stuck with me over the years as a reminder that I am surrounded with a surplus of so much to feed my flesh that if I do not intentionally deny myself of these things…my spirit will starve to death. 

God doesn’t need me to do without. 

But I do. 

He graciously provides for all of my needs, but I am forgetful and egocentric. 

I can take all that I have been given for granted or I can begin to err in thinking I both earned them and deserve them. 

Good Friday is a stark reminder that I brought nothing but my sin and brokenness to God’s table and He welcomed me. 

He offered His own body broken and His own blood to be poured out for the forgiveness and canceling of my sin and the sin of the whole world.

So on this day, even as I am surrounded by so much, I will choose to do my best to intentionally live in a way that honors His death. 

I pray any sincere act that I offer will be a pleasing gift of worship before Him. 

As I have been encouraging throughout Holy Week on my daily posts to open God’s word, I would suggest taking time today to meditate on the following passages:

Matthew 27: 32-56

Mark 15: 21-47

Luke 23: 26-55

John 19: 16-42

May the Lord speak to your hearts today to understand how dearly loved you are by Him who died for you. 

I pray you hear His voice speaking directly to each of you in the way you best understand and know Him.  

Laura <3