As we explore the new normal we find ourselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic the Mount Olivet community has been sharing devotionals to keep our community connected.

Someone has a case of the Mondays. I’m not writing about the Mondays many of us experience when we awake in the early morning hours on the first workday of the week, rubbing the sleep from our eyes, and firmly planting our feet on the floor. No, someone has a case of the Mondays in the best possible way.

The morning routine around our table has changed over the past two weeks. Instead of moving quickly we now take our time. Instead of opting for convenience we now opt for quality – time, food, and preparing for a week. This week we are preparing for a new online school platform, bike riding in the church parking lot, baking cupcakes, finally beating that impossible Star Wars Xbox level, and hitting dingers in the front yard.

It has been easy over the past two weeks for not want to get of bed on Monday. It has been easy over the past two weeks to live each day as though it was Monday – not a Monday in the sense of a chance to do something new.

A case of the Mondays can stop you in your tracks.

A case of the Mondays can change the way you not only see the world around you but also the way you see others. 

Each day we firmly plant our feet on the floor, in a brief moment we rarely notice, we make a choice: are we going to have a case of the Mondays, the Mondays we dread or are we going to have a case of the Mondays in the best possible way.

The Psalmist wrote:

21 I thank you that you have answered me

     and have become my salvation.

 22 The stone that the builders rejected

     has become the chief cornerstone.

 23 This is the Lord’s doing;

     it is marvelous in our eyes.

 24 This is the day that the Lord has made;

     let us rejoice and be glad in it. – Psalm 118:21-24

You will often hear the phrase, “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” in worship, Sunday school, or youth group. We have family members who have this scripture quoted on wall art in their home and I know others who repeat this scripture to themselves each day as they firmly plant their feet on the floor.

There has been much to despair about over the past two weeks. It is easy to become bogged down in news coverage and internet articles. We can become distance ourselves so much that we forget that we are missing out on life by doing so. 

I feel bad for the rest of Psalm 118, like every other verse in the third chapter of The Gospel of John that gives up the limelight to verse 16, we miss that while yes this is the day that the Lord has made, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.” 

Every time we allow despair to take a grip on us, we run the risk of forgetting that the Lord has done great things, marvelous things. A new sunrise is a marvelous thing. Making lunch, teaching first-grade grammar, facilitating preschool crafts, working, and then somehow making lunch for everyone is a marvelous thing. 

Caring for one another, reconnecting with friends, and pausing one of the busiest areas of the world is a marvelous thing.

Maybe Psalm 118 should be rewritten:

“This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”

That someone who has a case of the Mondays, that’s me. This Monday, this first day of the work and school week, I know, as my feet are firmly planted on the floor, that what the Lord will do will indeed be marvelous a thing.