Mondays

My friend Mark wrote on Facebook, "I like Mondays. TGIM!"

I agree. I love Mondays.

I know for Christians, Sunday is supposed to be the beginning of the week. It's not for me. It's the end. The culmination. The crescendo of my week.

Monday is the beginning.

I know many pastors take Monday off. It makes sense. After an exhausting day, it helps to have a day of rest. And since most of the time I'm not fully prepared for worship until right before it happens (and sometimes after it happens), you'd think I'd prefer my sabbath to be the day I'm not thinking about what's ahead.

But I love working on Mondays. Of course, I start slowly. I wake up when my body tells me to. I drink coffee and read in bed for a while. Then I straighten the house (it's usually a mess from the weekend). And I go through the piles on my desk.

And I start thinking about the week to come. The scripture and the sermon. They hymns and prayers for worship. Sunday school. Pastoral care visits and meetings and nursing home services. I can think and dream and plan and brainstorm.

One of my favorite characters, Anne Shirley, from Anne of Green Gables, says, "Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

That's how I see Mondays:  a new week, fresh and clean and full of possibilities, with no mistakes in it yet.