Daily Dose 32: The Daily and Weekly Flagpoles

Evening and Morning, the Daily Flagpole

Many parts of life should receive fresh, daily attention. We are to thank God daily for our food. With all deference to man’s invention of light bulbs, sleep should daily consume a large portion of the dark hours.  Personal relationships are to receive daily attention, especially addressing relationship problems (let not the sun go down upon your wrath, and in the day that ye hear it…).  Our personal walk with the Lord is to be fresh each day with time dedicated to Him in both the morning and the evening.

As a flagpole, a daily time to touch base with plans and schedules is what grows good intentions into good habits…and something about starting the day the evening before is an effective weapon against chaos in the morning. A quick look the night before at the next day’s schedule, setting out clothing, and knowing the next evening’s meal plan, are little steps the night before that set a smooth tenor for the following morning.

The Lord’s Day, the Weekly Flagpole

As the sun provides a daily clock and the moon a monthly one, the creation week sets the pattern of six days for work and one for the Lord. The Lord’s example of taking a day of rest, and His command that humans do likewise, makes the weekly flagpole, grounded in the Lord’s Day, significant.

Specific thoughts and activities directed toward pursuing His holiness should occupy one entire day of our week, making us want to completely set aside the regular routines, financial pursuits, and pleasurable endeavors that properly fill the remaining week days. We have six days to work earnestly, eagerly, and expectantly, and one to look back, look ahead, look inside, and look up.

Keeping the day quiet is actually hard work! And some of the alternate activities of the day are ones most of us do not relish. Yes, Sunday afternoon after church COULD BE used for a little extra Bible study time, a time to do some journal writing, compile a new prayer list, write an encouraging or soul-burdened letter (ok, email), but when push comes to shove, it is really hard to start doing any of those things. They are so unfamiliar to our routines. And the pile of  familiar, pressing obligations is not shrinking. Realistically, even if we are not “working” our regular jobs on that day, our minds (and many of our actions) keep work in first place. Clearing first place for even a little self-directed thinking and relating with the Lord, is likely to be some of the hardest work we attempt.

As a flagpole, we can start by asking ourselves: What plans do I have for His day? How are the other six days encroaching? Am I working earnestly, willingly, and wisely in the six days to free the seventh?