Vol. 19 No. 08 | February 19, 2017
It is Friday afternoon.
Many people look forward to Friday afternoon. For many, it is the last work day of the week. The majority of folks are clock-watching, counting the seconds until it is time to go. We use “hump day” as a marker for how much closer we are to Friday afternoon. We even have a restaurant named T.G.I.F (Thank God it’s Friday). All week long we make plans for what we are going to do on Friday after we get off work. Some want to party. Some want to relax. Some exercise. Some just relish in the fact that they are not at work.
For some people, Friday afternoons have a different feel. For some, Friday afternoons are lonely. I am a part of that ‘some’. I find Friday afternoons to be lonely.
Maybe it is because for most of my formative years, Friday afternoon was a time to get ready for a ballgame, a date, or dinner out.
Maybe it is because for all these years, our children were home on Friday afternoon, and it was a time to help them get ready for or go with them to a ball game, dinner out, or a movie.
Maybe it is because for much of my adult life, Friday afternoon meant I was either playing golf, doing yard work, or preparing to join friends or family for a meal.
Maybe it is because for so many years, and even still, the bulk of my work has been finished by Friday afternoon and I am ready to do something different, something fun, something relaxing.
We often plan to go to a movie or have dinner out on Friday evenings simply because it seems like a good thing to do.
Maybe Friday afternoon is often a struggle for some because it marks an end to the week, and we have more time to reflect. I tend to think about all the things I accomplished during the week. I think about all the things I wanted to accomplish. Then, I think about all the things that I did not accomplish that will be waiting for me tomorrow or Sunday or Monday.
I reflect a lot on Friday afternoon. I am more likely to listen to “Pacing the Cage” by Jimmy Buffet, or John Denver’s “Poems, Prayers, and Promises” on Friday afternoon. And it is not unusual for me to play “I Built Myself a Life.”
I must admit taking time to reflect is one of my special pleasures in life. Some might call it daydreaming, but that is something different. There is a purpose to reflecting. There is a purpose to reflecting on the day, the week, the month, the year, on life. I think reflection is a much needed and much forgotten instrument for developing a healthy soul.
Obviously, you can drive yourself crazy in your reflection time if you focus only on those unfinished tasks. Instead, try your hardest to reflect on what you have accomplished. Reflect on how God has helped you accomplish those things. Reflect on all the moments of beauty and rest and peace that God provided for you. Reflect on the struggles that God has helped you through. Reflect on promises He has made to you that you have yet to see fulfilled.
I wonder about Jesus’ reflections on that Friday afternoon on the cross. (No, I do not want to argue whether it was Friday or Thursday.) The story tells us He often went away by himself to pray, and I suspect reflect. On this particular Friday afternoon, He was focused on what was waiting for Him. The pain. The humiliation. The angry crowds. The nails. The tears. The hours before He finished what He came to do.
As He pondered those things ahead of him, I wonder if, to help get through it all, He might have reflected on being with the Father when they, along with the Spirit, created the world. I wonder if He might have reflected on the twelve who He had chosen and the times of teaching, sharing meals, laughing with them, and watching them struggle to understand His teaching.
I wonder if He reflected on the time He changed water to wine, watched Peter stop out of the boat and walk toward Him, and the look on the blind man’s face when he first opened his eyes and could see.
I wonder if He reflected on those things and so many other things that He and the Father had done together as he pleaded for there to be “another way.”
Obviously, I will never know all the things, what Jesus reflected on as he prayed in the garden on that Friday afternoon. But one thing I am sure of, He prayed. As He reflected, He was thinking of you and me, even though we were centuries from being born, and the provision for our sins to be forgiven that He was about to reveal to the world.
As I reflect on this Friday afternoon, I am reminded of children that are grown and living on the meals shared between them and good friends, lonely Friday afternoons when no one was around, and that special Friday afternoon when Jesus said, “This is why I came. And it is finished!” And I find that in the midst of my reflections, I am extremely grateful and forgiven.
It is Friday afternoon, and I am thankful.
Tom
A Norvell Note © Copyright 2017. Tom Norvell All Rights Reserved.