Get Up and Do It Anyway

I’ve told you before how much I love my job.  It’s still true.  I have rewarding work to do.  I have wonderful people to do it with.  I do it in a beautiful place.  I am blessed to be a pastor, and I am blessed to be a pastor here in these great communities.

And yet--recently I had a couple of days where I just did not feel like getting out of bed and going to work.  I was not sick or anything.  There was nothing in particular that was wrong, nothing to do with my work that was going to be unusually hard or unpleasant or anything like that.  I just--didn’t really feel like doing anything.

Do you ever have days like that?  Where you just feel like doing pretty much nothing all day?  I think a lot of us do. 

I wonder sometimes if Jesus ever had days like that.  There’s nothing in the Bible that tells us he did, so this is just speculation.  But Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine, which means he felt all the same things we feel.  And after all, if it did happen, it’s not the sort of thing the gospel writers would probably put in the Bible.  “And it came to pass that the Lord spaketh unto us, and said, “Yea, verily, I shouldst like to sleepeth in today.”’  When it came time to write the gospels, something like that is not going to make the cut.

But I think it’s possible.  I’m not talking about the times Jesus went to the mountains and spent time in meditation and prayer.  Those times were very important to Jesus, of course.  But I’m thinking that maybe he had a day, once in a while, when he just didn’t feel like healing people.  He didn’t feel like arguing with the Pharisees.  He just wanted to rest a while, and then maybe going over to the carpenter shop and work with his hands and make a table or something. 

But here’s the thing.  If Jesus ever did feel that way, I don’t think he ever acted on it.  I think he got up and served God the Father anyway.  Jesus knew what his mission was, and he knew he was not going to accomplish it by staying in bed.  So he got up and started plugging away, putting one foot in front of the other, and doing what needed to be done, what God wanted him to do.

And I think that’s what God wants from you and me, too.  God understands that, sometimes, we may not feel like doing anything, that we might just feel like staying in bed.  God understands it--but God does not want us to act on it.  God has things for us to do.  No matter our age, no matter our situation, God has things for us to do.  And we are not going to accomplish them by staying in bed.  So, even if we don’t feel like it, we need to get up and start plugging away, putting one foot in front of the other, and doing what needs to be done, what God wants us to do.

And you know what?  Most of the time, when we do that, our feeling of wanting to stay in bed goes away.  Because there is something about serving God that gets us going.  It gives us energy.  It fires us up.  And all of a sudden, we don’t feel like just staying in bed anymore.

So, if you have a day where you feel like sleeping in, know that God understands.  But know, too, that God has things for you to do, and you’re not going to accomplish them by staying in bed.  So get up and do what needs to be done, what God wants you to do.  You’ll feel better.  And you’ll be serving God.