Saturday. The day between Friday & Sunday

Saturday.
 The day of confusion.
The day of discouragement and lost hope.
 The day of grappling with the question of "What just happened??
How could He have failed?
How on Earth did we end up here??
Sit here. Wrestle with it.
And be changed in your belief that nothing is happening.
 Is it really??
Or is it perhaps that the growth, the change you've been looking for, waiting for, & praying for is really all happening out of sight, underneath the surface just like a seed or a flower bulb that has sprouted underground, but has not yet made its way to the surface?
I know that we love to say, "It's Friday, but Sunday is coming!" But what about Saturday?? What about when you don't know that Sunday is coming?? Has anyone else ever felt like that their life is stuck in a holding pattern of Saturdays? If so, read on for some thoughts that I wrote a few Easters ago and still tend to ponder every year at this time.

"It's funny how your perspective changes when you are remembering and anticipating celebrating something that has already happened, versus living in it. For us, the day between Good Friday and Easter is a day of anticipation, of looking forward to joining together with our fellow believers to rejoice in the fact that our Savior is risen, and has indeed defeated death. HALLELUJAH!!!

However for the disciples, this day was not a joyful day, but one filled with grief, anguish, and the thousand other emotions that fill you up (and at times seem to crash over you & overwhelm you like ocean waves) when you've lost someone dear to your heart. It seems like the end...and yet surely it can't be. He said He was the Christ, the Messiah, the one we had been waiting for, but now He's just gone...it wasn't supposed to happen this way! Denial comes along with forgetting, if just for only a moment, before a fresh new wave of remembrance and grief smacks you upside the head again. On and on the cycle goes, you don't want to remember, but at the same time, you can't seem to forget either. And what about the chief priests and authorities? Are they coming after us next?? Was Jesus's death enough to satisfy them or will they turn to us next? If they do leave us alone, what do we do next? We've been traveling with Jesus for 3 years, what do we do now? Just go home? Do we even have homes anymore?

-- This we so often forget, that while we are getting ready to celebrate, they were just left wondering and confused. They did NOT know that Sunday was coming. So today, take a few mins to think about what it would have been like back then without the hope and knowledge we have today and let that infuse your celebration tomorrow!! For the more we feel the disciples' pain today, how much more so will we feel the JOY in declaring, "He is Risen, He is Risen, indeed!"