Saturday Nights

Does it ever happen to you…that sudden whirr of remembrance…the thought that pops up in your mind like the last computer tab to be closed, saying “Error, Error”…does it ever happen to you?

It happens to me on Saturday nights.

The lull before Sunday. The hush before a day we traditionally set aside to worship God. The wondering why it always feels like such a struggle to re-focus. Focus, focus…what gets such attention during the week that Sunday requires a re-focus instead of a continued focus?

Maybe this doesn’t happen to you.

But on Saturday nights I see temporary and permanence collide. The dreams of the world swept away by the promises of heaven. The sand in the hourglass pours louder and faster on Saturday nights–or so it seems. Life continues to spin as it always does, but on Saturday nights I sense it spins a little faster, as time gets a little shorter…and, for so many that we love, hell gets a little closer.

Perhaps hell gets hotter on Saturday nights. Thousands of years of sin’s consequences and God’s wrath bottled up. Do fire and brimstone rage in their capsule when the pastor prepares his sermon on Saturday night? Does Satan flex his claws and sneer at the inattentive souls he plans to take down with him? Does God look at the earth He created and all the people in it and sigh deeply, grieving like a parent who watches their children willingly eat poison–while he instead offers the finest food and drink before them?

Every Saturday night we go to bed assuming tomorrow will be just another Sunday. Another Sunday sermon. Another Sunday over and done. And perhaps it will.

But it may be a Sunday morning when we awaken before God and our lives are exposed. Every action, every word behind the action, and the thoughts behind the words. By grace some of us will see the full measure of our redemption through Jesus Christ, but for many, many others, the redemption preached on Sunday mornings will have fallen upon deaf ears as they themselves fell away from the gospel of Christ.

Is your Saturday night a hopeful, soul-stirring reminder that Sunday is coming? Or does your Saturday night bring an eerie, chilling awareness that the nightmare you’ve been trying to keep away will one day catch you and consume you?

Sunday is coming. Are you ready?

“[Jesus said] Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap. For it will come on all those who live on the face of the whole earth. Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”
– Luke 21:34-36

“At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
– Luke 21:27-28