This morning of Good Friday, I normally have off from my job, as our employer offers that day as a paid Holiday day off. Due to the enormous amount of workload our department has been facing lately, I realized that though I would much prefer to kick my shoes off and take it easy instead of having to drag myself to work on a paid Holiday, I knew that the Lord was extending to me this opportunity to think of others besides my own comfort level. To pick up my cross for Him, even in my every day job.. Working this Friday as well as tomorrow to help get the extra work load out before Monday is not something my flesh enjoys doing. It is very tiring and physically demanding, and in my job, I am on my feet constantly with swollen ankles; There are no chairs provided where I work so that the production work will get out faster.
This Friday I was planning on taking advantage of my “day off” and sleeping in, enjoying my “free day” off from work., until I saw how slammed we were with extra accounts that my company suddenly acquired, meaning a much more heavier workflow than we formerly had. Many of my coworkers will not pick up the slack.. refusing to give up their long weekends… but the Lord was asking me to do my part.
I was reminded by Him that in our Easter feasting, our Easter Egg hunts, and our shopping sprees for this years’ new Sunday outfit , that we lose sight of what and Who Easter truly represents. . Easter was actually never called “Easter” in the first place, but should be called ‘Ressurection Day”, as the word “Easter” is derived from “Ishtar”… a Babylonian god of fertility. That somehow got mixed in with the Christian aspects of this period throughout the ages., and has contributed in causing us to lose sight of Jesus Christ. Lent, Maunday Thursday, Good Friday, and Ressurection Sunday were intended to commerate what our Lord, Jesus Christ endured for us..the Price He was willing to pay to purchase us with His blood.. to allow His body to be broken and to suffer unimaginable suffering so that we could be saved.. and to show us the way back to His.. and through Him , OUR Heavenly Father. It is a “holiday” that should teach us the value of The Cross.. the value of picking up our cross daily to follow Him., to share in His sufferings. And did our Lord ever suffer! His cross was more than the cross He was nailed to , but His cross started the day He was born, and He carried it each time He toiled in the carpenter shop, or travelled hungry on the dry dusty roads from village to village.. His was a thankless solitary life on this Earth, but He willingly embraced His cross.. for love of the Father and love for us all to the end of time.
With this perspective in mind, it is not possible for me to whine and complain that I am giving up a Good Friday to “pick up my cross”.. however tiny it is compared to our Lord’s greater Cup He drank from. To share with our Lord this little cross of labor with Him, so that I can then share with Him in His resurrection.
Before heading off to work this Good Friday morning, I felt the Holy Spirit lead me to open Clare’s website, http://ourladylightofthewoods.org/index.php?pool=11 for a message He wanted me to have this day.. before I head off to work with Him. Opening that website, generated an automatic message for that day, and this is what I opened to !
Wow.. Enough said.. because the Lord said it all . May Jesus be honored and glorified in all of our lives..
Shared by a Heart Dweller