Today is the down day. The forgotten day. The day in the middle of the death that rocked the whole world and the comeback that changed the whole world.

Everyone remembers the cross. Everyone celebrates the resurrection.

But no one gives cards celebrating the Saturday between the two.

Maybe we should.

Maybe we should remember that what seemed like a down day was actually the day when the coming victory was building in the unseen realm.

This is the day when Jesus delivered the news of the enemy’s defeat to the enemy in person.

The day Jesus took back the keys to death and the grave.

The day that reminds us that our God is always at work, even when we aren’t.

The day that stands as a testimony to us all that there really are no down days. That even when we’re weeping in the night, our God is working behind the scenes to set the table for a breakfast of joy in the morning.

We may be down, but our God isn’t.

Ever!

Today, on what many see as the throwaway day between the two most important days, remind yourself that God chose three days for a reason, and it’s often because there’s work that only He can do in the middle.

Our job? Simply to stand still and see the deliverance of our God.

Still not convinced? Just wait and see. The Son will rise tomorrow.

Photo by Cody Chan on Unsplash

I just completed the first week of the Couch 2 5K running program…again.

It’s the program that I used back in April 2008 when I literally went from the couch to a 5k a few months later. It’s the program that eventually led me to…

More 5ks…

Some 10ks…

6 half-marathons…

4 marathons, and…

4 ultras, including 50 miles on my 50th birthday.

But after a season of injury after a pandemic full of crises, loss, and stress, I found myself hitting the start button on Week 1, Day 1 of the C25K app at the beginning of the week.

And I’ve never felt better.

Jesus spoke these words to the church in Ephesus: “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first…” (‭‭Revelation‬ ‭2:5‬ ‭NIV, emphasis added)

This was after He had listed all the impressive things that they had done – kind of like my list of running accomplishments – and told them that the one thing He found lacking was the love they’d had at the beginning. The verse quoted above was His prescription: stop what you’re doing now, and go back to what you were doing before.

See, a step back isn’t failure if it’s a step back to where we should have been all along.

Sometimes, the only way to find the love you had at the beginning is by going back to the beginning. The reason stepping back can rekindle our first love is simple: our first love, Jesus, is waiting for us there.

This week, I sat in a chair at the dentist office and looked at pictures of my tooth falling apart.

The good news? It doesn’t hurt.

The bad news? It will hurt unless I get a root canal.

Actually, hearing about getting the root canal hurt, too, because he mentioned the price. But, that’s another story for another day. My takeaway was that root decay carries with it all kinds of danger, and the most notable is this:

When the root decays, everything else crumbles.

The Bible has a lot to say about roots, and we could spend a lot of time talking about a lot of them. Hebrews 12:15 warns us of the havoc a root of bitterness can wreak. Mark 4:17 tells us that we can’t withstand trouble without roots.

On the positive side, multiple passages remind us that strong roots lead to fruitfulness, thankfulness, and prosperity (see Jeremiah 17:7-8; Colossians 2:6-7; and Psalm 1:3).

It’s not a stretch to say that culture is crumbling. After the slap heard ‘round the world, people couldn’t even agree on whether they should say that it’s wrong to publicly assault someone on national television. When the roots of absolute truth decay, it’s impossible to say with any conviction what is wrong or right, even when the wrong is so clearly wrong.

As culture is clamoring for a way to make judgement calls while still holding to the lie that truth is relative, God is purifying His bride to the core of who She is. Why? So that we can have the pure, unadulterated, truth in the depths of who we are so that WE can be the ones who make the judgement calls because someone has to be the voice of reason and truth.

Will people like it? Probably not. When Jesus said that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light (John 14:6), He made three absolute statements. Is it any surprise that people tend to agree with two-thirds of them? Lost people are thankful when they find the Way, and people trapped in darkness celebrate when they see the Light of the rescue team.

But people who have given themselves over to a lie? They don’t rejoice in the Truth; they try to kill it.

Which is why we must have strong roots. Roots that keep us connected to the source of all truth, because if we have root decay, it’s only a matter of time before we have truth decay, too.

Photo by Ozkan Guner on Unsplash