Another Monday

[Hebrews 4:14-16 The Message] Now that we know what we have—Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God—let’s not let it slip through our fingers. We don’t have a priest who is out of touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it all—all but the sin. So let’s walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give. Take the mercy, accept the help.

(Tom’s) alarm clock wakes him up as his mind tells him “Another Monday.”  He had rather not have to get up but feels like going back to sleep. He is worn out from this past weekend. He considers calling in to work sick but his conscious would dog him. Then there are the bills and the groceries he needs the money for. His wife will get up and then get the kids off to school and go to her job. He wishes he had won the Saturday night lottery drawing as that ten million would rescue him and his family from this daily grind. After showering and saying good bye to his wife and kids he is off to work. The twenty minute drive on the freeway can be enjoyable or unbearable; depending on the traffic he shares it with. Listening to the radio his mind remembers something the preacher said yesterday morning. He had not really wanted to go to church but his kids love it so he and his wife go for their sakes. The preacher said something to the effect that Jesus understood how we feel all the time. He begins to wonder how that could possibly be. Jesus never had a wife, or kids, or a job for that matter. He never faced the daily ho-hum of life of paying bills and mowing grass. He went around healing people and preaching to them all day and the main point, He was God according to the preacher. “God living life as a man, yeah right” he thought. Arriving at work and punching the clock he heads to the coffee machine for a quick shot of caffeine. (Jim) is there getting coffee too. (Jim) is a big religious dude. If you talk to him long he will preach you a sermon. He is a nice guy though and seems to have a good outlook on life. “Hey Jim, how’s it going?” Jim answers, “Good Tom, how about you?” “Okay”, Tom says. “Let me ask you something Jim; the preacher said yesterday God knows how we feel all the time. How could He possibly know what it’s like to go to work every day when He never had a job or a family?” Jim smiles, takes a sip of his coffee and answers; “I think the preacher was saying that God was human, just like us. Regardless of who we are or what we do, God knows how humans feel.” Tom then asks, “So how does that help me? Knowing He knows how I feel?” Jim says, “Because He knows you as you know you Tom! He doesn’t have to ask us how we are doing; He knows! No other human can actually know how another human truly feels.” Tom asks again, “Yeah, but how does that help me Jim?” Jim pats him on the back as he walks away and says, “It won’t help you Tom, until you care about how He feels about you.” As the coffee machine drops the cup and fills it, Tom gazes up.