8 Days a Week

"Eight days a week
I love you.
Eight days a week
Is not enough to show I care . . . "
-The Beatles

in our harried imacdonald's frenzy world
we tend to over stuff the calendar
like a kid's backpack until the zipper breaks
and we have a breakdown
so we countdown to the holidays
that we would probably miss
if they weren't pre-printed on our calendars
this weekend
we gather in places we haven't seen since Christmas
which felt like yesterday
a little more spruced up than usual
and looking forward to a steamy meal together
where we can over stuff something else
all the while missing invitations from You
because we have no time to sort the mail
then we take a look at Your week
a triumphant donkey ride of grass roots fanfare
miracles forgotten in a day
a meal where we missed the meaning
horrified as you knelt to wash our dusty feet
sore from our pace of living
a prayer in the garden as the torches approached
thirty pieces and a kiss from a friend
the trials, the torture, Your silence
the crown, the nails, Your promise to a thief
many of us mourn at the seventh day
and run back to our 24/7 lives
of emptiness in a full calendar
but there was a day we missed
and it's waiting for us
under the marshmallow peeps, pastel dresses,
bunny suits in the mall, dyed eggs,
and baskets filled with sweets and surprises
the eighth day in the week
the surprise party that the guests of honor can miss
if they don't get the invitation
and slow down long enough
to be loved
eight days a week


"The Gospels devote nearly a third of their length to the climactic week of Jesus's life . . . Jesus himself had mixed feelings during the clamorous parade . . . Voices who shout 'Hosanna! one week can shriek 'Crucify him!' the next . . . the Passover meal . . . the scene of the footwashing . . . Jesus symbolically overturned the whole social order . . . When Judas led a lynch mob into the garden, Jesus addressed him as 'Friend' . . . " Phillip Yancey, The Jesus I never Knew

"Not many people do down time very well, so our tendency is to rush past the down times . . .
God will be with you at Mach four in one way and he will be with you in the dark and dry and barren times in a different way. We know the places where God slows us down because those are the places where we tend to look up." Mark Beeson, Holy Thursday sermon 3/20

"Then he turned to the host. 'The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You'll be—and experience—a blessing. They won't be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God's people.' " Luke 14: 12-14