Update on your Operating System. “Click here” to download the current version. It’s pretty routine, and you know what to do when you’re notified of the upgrade. Stop whatever you’re doing and put the reset into action…

You need to stop right now and update your personal operating system; specifically, your calendar feature has been corrupted by hackers, intent on denigrating your life experience.

Here it is, short and sweet: your cultural operating system’s calendar has been downloaded into your psyche, and it has been corrupted. According to your surroundings, you’ve been led to believe that Easter is sometime in the spring, and Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November, and Giving Tuesday is the day after Cyber Monday, which happens at the end of the weekend that begins with Black Friday and continues into Small Business Saturday. And, after you’ve maxed-out your credit card limits, you’ll finally celebrate Christmas on December 25.  Are you clear on all of that?

In that crowded field of calendar inclusions, does it make sense to consider the reset that your claims of faith would highlight?

Here’s a scriptural – and, streamlined – set of calendar highlights that are worthy of your determination:

First up: Easter is not about bunnies and chocolate eggs. The day is devoted to the most incredible event of human history: the Son of God – who had died on Friday to fulfill the divine mandate that sin required equivalent propitiation to be resolved – defeated death by coming back to life in a tomb three days later and declared himself to be the resurrected Savior. The Resurrection is at the heart of the Christian Gospel message, and it is the essential truth that is restated every time the followers of Jesus meet for worship. That isn’t once-a-year: it’s every Sunday. Easter is every Sunday.

Thanksgiving? A great family gathering with turkey and trimmings is a wonderful annual festivity, but the recognition of gratitude toward God for his constant abundance of provision is a constant posture, not a presidential proclamation. Thanksgiving is every day.

Giving Tuesday? The biblical model runs counter to the culture. When is it time to give? Every time we receive. From God’s material and/or financial provisions, a portion is designated to be returned to him in tribute for his faithfulness in the practicum of life. Not the “prosperity gospel” model of give-to-get; rather, it’s the message of Scripture that recognizing God as the source of all runs counter to the “self-made man” model of modern self-centric philosophies. It pays homage to the God who entrusts his abundance to us, always with stewardship responsibility attached. Every day is a giving day.

Christmas? No one knows the calendar date that coincides with the human birth of the divine child in a Bethlehem stable, but history and tradition have given us December 25^th as the day we join the shepherds of Luke’s nativity account in echoing the angelic assembly, proclaiming the arrival of Jesus. Malls and online vendors will vie for attention, but the wholesome and holy focus of the holiday will be best experienced with the Family of God with whom you regularly worship. If your unchurched – and, likely unsaved – friends are ever likely to hear and accept an your invitation to join you at church, the Christmastime events are most likely to draw them in. It’s Christmas in December.

All the rest are commercial contrivances that can be tolerated, but the reset of your personal calendar call-outs – to align with the priorities that came loaded in your follower-of-Jesus operating system – are worth the reminder.

These are the days that matter! Honored to be experiencing them with you!

Bob Shank

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