First United Methodist Church - Fort Collins, CO

I have begun to realize that this “Monday” this is large and applies in different ways to different people. Monday is my day off and is a day I look forward to spending with Kathy, but there are other ways in which there is a Monday issue.

“Monday is a Monster”

Some of us it is the ongoing routine we cannot escape. It’s a day to do nothing followed by another day in which there is nothing to do. For some of us Monday the day we’re dreading. It’s the coming of the new school year, or the arena in which we will be challenged to do something we may or may not be able to do. For some of us it is the arrival of the moment when we are going to have surgery or when we are going to face the death of a loved one. For some of us it is the arrival of our own death. Monday is the tomorrow we’re afraid to face. How do we face it?

For Jeremiah it was the coming of the Babylonians and the captivity and he responded by buying land as a token of his confidence that the people would return to the land. It was an affirmation of the future they we not able to see. 

• How do we face Monday/tomorrow?
• How do we face whatever tomorrow brings?

Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow. Today has enough problems of its own.

 If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles

This summer we have tried to look at some of the many moods of summer, and this coming Sunday I want to have us reflect upon the depression of going back to work when, at times, we feel our work is futile. Many members of the church tell me how exciting their work is and how much they enjoy it, but that doesn’t deny that there are times it is difficult to get back to it. In fact, we can become addicted to our work.

In the Biblical texts we find support from some surprising sources as we reflect upon our Monday Morning Blues. The Creator of Creation had moments when there was regret for the fact of creation. We are told there was a time God wished God had not created humankind. Moses, in leading the people out of Egypt, had to face the indignity of questioning from people who would rather have remained in captivity. Did Isaac ever get depressed? The name, Isaac, means “laughing”. Were there times in his life when he wasn’t laughing? I suspect there were.

What do we do with our depression? It can come to us because we do not believe the work we do is meaningful, but it can also hit us when we are overstressed by work we values but which takes too much out of us. It can come to us because we feel inadequate and it can come to us when we are feeling extremely competent. It can come to us at any stage of our career, and it can come to us when we are completely retired. It happens to people in the Universities, in the corporate world, and in the Retirement Home. It happens in the church, in the operating theater, in show business, and in the school classroom.

What do we do with our depression when it is related to the work we do, or the work we wish we did, or the work we are no longer able to do?

 If you have thoughts, please leave a comment with this post. For personal thoughts write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. I look forward to hearing from you.

- Charles