We’ve just finished this series, Everyday Ordinary, and the challenge was (and is) how we work out the implications of what we believe about Jesus in our everyday, ordinary lives– the lives we actually live.

We considered how each Sunday is a great opportunity to spend some time and create the week that will follow. However, this Sunday, the week we are preparing for is Holy Week. It’s a meaningful time for us to consider that God’s purpose and intention and the life He longs to give is available to us as we make ourselves available to Him.

To make your life available is to make your life holy.

So, let’s start Holy Week by making this week, our time and our lives, available to Him and for Him.

Begin by Creating a Week…

At some point this Sunday, take 20 minutes to look at the week ahead. And don’t just react to what you see, consider the possibility that you are creating what is to come.

Look at your calendar and lists, the appointments you have scheduled and all things you hope to accomplish. Some of us will be anticipating a typical week, and for others it will be anything but. Some of us will have a vacation day or two, or maybe a whole week off. There might be family dinners, easter egg hunts, or spring cleaning marked on our calendars. Prayerfully offer up what you foresee the week to be.

This isn’t just so we can see what the week ahead will look like, but also so we can determine how we will see what is visible on our calendars– we will determine the way in which we approach the plans that we have made (or have been made for us!)

We also should recognize that most of what will happen over the next seven days isn’t going to make it on a piece of paper or be typed on our phone. Most of what will happen will be found in the ordinary, mundane moments that we have the tendency to ignore or just push through. But it’s those exact moments that are ripe with possibility, an opportunity for us to be faithful in the smallest moments, for no other reason than to be faithful.

We all have the opportunity to determine what we will bring to those moments and to the other people in our lives. As we begin, let’s recognize that this week is actually packed with meaning; it is the week leading up to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is Holy Week. So let’s make it a holy week.

I don’t mean religious, although there are probably numerous opportunities for you to gather with your church and to participate. And of course, I want that for us. We are providing those opportunities at the church I lead.

But I don’t want Holy Week to be about simply what we do, I want it to be about what we see.

I want it to be about how we see–how we will stop and look and reflect on the meaning of the week, but also the way in which the meaning matters to us… in the actual lives that we live.

Eugene Peterson paraphrases Galatians 5:25-26 like this:

Galatians 5:25-26 MSG
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.

It isn’t just about what we believe about the events of this week, but the implications of those events. And these aren’t just automatic. We have to create space to consider and to see.

So our faith isn’t just a sentiment or fodder for a FaceBook post, but the beauty and the hope of the Gospel come to bear on our actual lived lives.

Holy Week is the pinnacle of the church calendar. But rather than seeing it as a tradition, what if this Holy Week allowed us to see what this incredibly Holy Week might do for our everyday ordinary lives?

The holy moments are not just highlights, but rather intersections where our normal life is connected with the abundant life Jesus came to bring. That our small faithful acts and offerings of ourselves would bring a sense of fullness and freedom within us and offer a sense of goodness to the world around us.

So I’d invite you to consider some things:

What would you like to see?
What would you like to experience?
How can you show up in your own life to share what you long to see and experience?

As a part of Holy Week, our church will be posting daily devotions that have been written specifically to help us consider Jesus and the implications of His life on ours. Also, on Wednesday, we will be posting a Midweek Meditation Podcast. I would love for you to share these experiences with us. I believe this will be helpful to us as we see how holy our everyday, ordinary moments can be throughout the week ahead.