The Gift of a Bonus Day
Wednesday afternoon I walked down the road to the Freddy’s pharmacy and rolled up my sleeve to be vaccinated. Contracting COVID has become an unfortunate annual tradition for me since we left lockdown. Fortunately, each year’s booster has kept my illness manageable.
Vaccine season means searching my calendar for a block of 2-3 days where I can be quite sick. I’ve learned from my previous mistake of getting a COVID booster on Friday morning thinking, “surely I’ll shake the aches and soreness by Sunday,” only to be stuck in bed with fever and chills well past Sunday worship!
I expected to fall ill Wednesday night – too ill even for social media or shows – and for that to last thru Friday. To my great surprise and delight, I woke up Thursday morning after a night of restful sleep with only moderate ache and fatigue. Having expected to be completely out of commission, I was thrilled to realize: I had the gift of a bonus day!
An entire extra day to live as I pleased. I wondered, how might I live this extra day?
As I pondered, recent news of the latest rapture prediction from a South African pastor came to mind. According to much of social media this week, true believing Christians were meant to be raptured this last Tuesday and Wednesday.
If you’re reading this, you’re still here… and as I’m writing it, so am I. Oh well!
(Quick reminder: the rapture is not going to happen- not yesterday, not tomorrow, not any other day. The Book of Revelation talks about God’s love and heaven coming to earth, not plucking folks up to be somewhere else. If you’re curious about where rapture theology came from in the first place, check out this quick study video)
But I wonder: as many expected Tuesday or Wednesday to be their very last day on earth, did they also wake up on Thursday thinking, “my goodness- the gift of a bonus day! How might I live this extra day?”
Perhaps, perhaps not.
Whether we expect Jesus to whiz us up to a holy place in the sky or not, it’s a crucial daily question for every day we are gifted.
How might you live the gift of a bonus day? An entire extra day to live as you please? Where does God nudge your spirit in these overwhelming times?
Folks sometimes turn to 1 Thessalonians 5 to inform their rapture theology, reading judgment and warning into its words. However, 1 Thessalonians in its entirety and several verses in chapter 5 itself are meant to be words of encouragement.
If someone is misbehaving, then listing the wrongs serves as a judgment on their actions. If someone is doing the right thing, listing the wrongs are simply encouragement that they’re on the right path. That’s what we find in the first letter to the Thessalonians.
The Apostle Paul was confronted by Thessalonian despair and sought to write a letter of encouragement to them, assuring them that in life or death, waking or sleeping, Christ dwelled with each of them. He also wanted the Thessalonians to keep encouraging one another. Paul essentially writes: keep being who you are in God. Do what you are doing. God is with you; it will be okay.
Like the Thessalonians, I experience First Church to be a community of encouragers who are headed toward the right path. This community of encouragers has been gifted a bonus day! Today is a day that no one was promised, and yet here we are.
What does it look like to share this gift?
Some share their presence, some share their time, some share their protest, some share their wisdom, some share their skills or their compassion or a conversation or simply a kind smile.
Whether you are ‘some’ or not, I invite you to share a bit of this day:
Take out a piece of paper or pull up a note on your phone.
Write down three people who need a word of hope and encouragement.
Then, below those three names, write your own name.
Before the end of this gift of a bonus day, write those notes: to the three you thought of first, and to yourself. I especially encourage you to write the note to yourself on physical paper, but whatever you have handy will do. Don’t just draft them in your head, write them down where they and you can read the note as many times as is needed, letting the words sink into the weary parts of our souls. Don’t let the day pass without sending the notes, or, put them where they can be mailed tomorrow.
Yesterday, we did not know if we’d have the gift of today. Today, there is more hope and encouragement in the world because we did. May we continue to share all the goodness of God that is shared with us, this day and always.
With gratitude for who you are in God,
Pastor Karyn
Note: For the purpose of accuracy, I must share that my post-vaccine day did devolve after I wrote this piece. Still had a bonus few hours!