The weekend rolls around and then the calendar page turns to Monday where we find ourselves heading back to work, school, etc. And then it is simply Tuesday. Have you ever found yourself just stuck there? Tuesday isn’t Monday. It isn’t Friday or the end of the week. It isn’t even hump day. It is just laying out there all by itself. Yet perhaps maybe we are called to embrace our simple Tuesdays.
“Let’s gently poke our sleepy souls refusing to wait for a big event to wake us up. Let’s stop running from ordinary time but begin to sit in the midst of it (P. 26).”
Yes, let’s sit in the midst of that ordinary time because the truth is that ordinary time is longer and more than the other special days. In fact, in the seasons of the church year, the liturgical color green which is for ordinary time is the longest season of the church year. It can be so easy to get caught up in what seems like boredom and smallness of that ordinary time. But as Emily reminds us, that ordinary time is an important time for us to dwell. It is a time that leads to those extraordinary times and helps us to enjoy those extra special days even more.
The truth is that on those simply Tuesdays, God is there with us. “As it turns out, Jesus doesn’t come riding in on a white horse to save me from my humiliation, my daily work, my endless list. Instead, he whispers a quiet invitation to keep company with him the way he came to earth to keep company with us. It won’t always feel like a rescue. It might feel like surrender. But on the other side of that space I find Jesus. I find his peace, I find his companionship (Introduction; Location 237).”
I love that I just finished this book as the calendar page soon turns to Advent. Advent is my most favorite time of the year because it continually reminds me of Jesus “Emmanuel”; God with us who comes in the most unlikely place to the most unlikeliest people. God has a way of doing that; showing up in those small mundane simply Tuesday spaces. And it is in those spaces, that we are reminded of God’s love for us; a love that comes not just on Sundays, but every day of the week including those simply Tuesday days.
“Being led by love has to start by recognizing we already have it. I can’t let love lead if I don’t know it’s there to begin with (P. 188).”
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love moves toward (P. 193).”
God’s love reminds us that God is there in the light and in the darkness, in the joy and in the sorrow, and in the morning and in the night. It is just that sometimes we have a hard time seeing God in those places. But the truth is that God is always there. God promises to never leave us or forsake us. God sits with us on our Tuesday benches with our Tuesday people on those simply Tuesdays and shows us who God has created us to be.
“And even as we stand with our feet firmly planted on our Tuesdays, we’ll let our souls, with childlike wonder, stand high on tiptoe with great hope, knowing the King of our Kingdom will one day come again (P.218)”
And that, my friends, is enough!
I am linking up with Holly at Testimony Tuesday, Kelly and the RaRa Linkup, Jennifer Dukes Lee and Tell His Story, Holley Gerth and Coffee for your Heart and Literary Musing Mondays.
I'm so glad you enjoyed that book. Emily's book "Simply Tuesdays" is on my Christmas wish list! Thanks for the encouraging words! Happy Thanksgiving to you!
I hope you like the book as much as I did, Rachel! Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
Yes, that is enough! Praising Him as I, too, stand on my tippytoes.
Caring through Christ, ~ linda
ps…thankful you are my neighbor at Holly's today
Yes, standing on our tippytoes.
Glad we could be neighbors at Holly's today!
Love the completeness expressed in your post today. So many times I think we search beyond what we think God an offer – yet He is MORE than enough!
Thanks Bethany! He is indeed MORE than enough!
I'm in the middle of reading Simply Tuesday been reading it for awhile but the enemy keeps using distractions in the form of other books to not finish it. I need to pick it back up because I've loved what I read so far
Miranda, it is such a good read! You indeed must finish it. It is so so good!
Beautiful thoughts here. Slowing into His Presence, recognizing He's never left: I've just been too busy "shuffling and stumbling around" (Psalm 112) to sit with Him:
"Instead, he whispers a quiet invitation to keep company with him the way he came to earth to keep company with us. It won't always feel like a rescue. It might feel like surrender. But on the other side of that space I find Jesus. I find his peace, I find his companionship"
Let me take up this invitation more often than I do now.
Thanks Anna! That quote from the book is one of my faves! Yes, may you take up that invitation!
"God's love reminds us that God is there in the light and in the darkness, in the joy and in the sorrow, and in the morning and in the night." This is the perfect reminder for my hectic week. I'm so glad you are my neighbor today. Reading this was like a glass of cool water on a warm day – just right. Hugs for your Thanksgiving!
Glad my words were the perfect reminder for you during your hectic week. I am glad that you were my neighbor today. A glass of cool water on a warm day…love that description and glad that my words were that for you friend. Hugs for your Thanksgiving too!
Ah–being able to simply remain present in those ordinary days–that is a gift that I'm learning to recieve.
It is a gift I am learning more and more to receive too!
Haven't read it yet.
It is a must read!
Amen! That is enough! I am so thankful God sits with us on those benches! Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!
Lori, I am so thankful God sits with us on those benches too. May you have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving too!