Many Christians appear to be spending their time on earth treading spiritual water. They are not living totally in the world nor are they practicing holiness. Christian disciplines are lackadaisical and are done halfheartedly. There is little devotion to the imperative of "Be holy as I am holy" (1 Pet.1:16) therefore very little spiritual growth. This Christian lives a rather defeated life frequently looking at the lives of other believers in comparison to their own and evaluating that they come up way short.
Does this describe you today? It has from time to time described me. I get so lazy sometimes! The thought seems to be that I can somehow "skate" through my days without Him, as though my continual connection with Him is somehow optional! What a fool that makes me! That is when I live in Saturday. I live as though Jesus is no longer in the picture that He is gone and I am once again living for myself. This leads me to think and then act as though I am no longer a slave to righteousness, that I have been released from my bondage to Him.
The disciples were there...although they had heard Jesus tell them plainly, and in various more obtuse language of the parable that he was going away, that He was going to the Father, that He was "going to die on the cross" and more importantly that "He would rise from the dead "they did not believe Him. After Friday, they were convinced life would go on as before. That their obligation to Christ was done, and that He was gone. We know this because on Sunday, they did not go to the tomb. They did not go to the tomb...they did not go to the tomb on Sunday!
These guys hung with Jesus 24/7 for 3 solid years and heard from His own mouth what was going to happen, and yet they did not go to the tomb. They were living in Saturday. Living in the perceived defeat of all their dreams, believing it was all over.
How different are we, really? When you blow it, return to some old sin habit, or forget who you are in Christ then you are living in Saturday too. "Saturday" is a desert-like place. It even has an emotional feeling attached that we can describe- lonely. God graciously allows us to be in Saturday for a time. He uses this time to remind us that we need Him. That we are not so all fired independent, that we have been created for Him and that our complete identity and worthiness is found in Him.
Saturday makes me long for Sunday. In Sunday I find hope renewed! The lonely desert becomes an oasis of overflowing grace. I realize a fresh start and I come to my Lord and Savior and know that I am accepted and loved and that He will welcome me into His arms once again. The Disciples realized this as the resurrected Christ stood in their midst that Sunday morning.
This is the journey of the Saint on the road of progressive sanctification. We understand that this is a life long sojourn full of many peaks of faith and valleys of sorrow. I find myself there today, trudging along the road and looking unto Sunday when we will see Him- our face to His beautiful face.
