I Am Full On Sunday And Empty By Tuesday

She could set a clock by it now, which is what has made it a problem rather than a rhythm.

Sunday is real. She wants to say that clearly because the cynical reading of this is available and it is not the true one. She is met on a Sunday. Something happens, and it is not manufactured, and she is not talking herself into it.

By Sunday evening it is still there.

Monday it thins.

And by about two o'clock on Tuesday there is nothing left at all, and she is in the middle of an ordinary week feeling exactly as she felt on Saturday, and it is as though the whole thing had not happened.

Every week. For about three years.

And the picture she has arrived at, without ever choosing it, is that she is a container with a leak in it. That whatever is poured in on a Sunday runs out by Tuesday, and that other people must hold it for longer, and that there is something in the fabric of her that does not retain.

She has never said that to anybody either, because there is no way to say it that does not invite a suggestion, and she has had all the suggestions, and every one of them is another thing to do on a Tuesday when there is nothing left to do it with.

And that is you on your own Tuesday afternoon, or you would not still be reading.

The picture Scripture actually uses

Let me take the container off you and give you the one that is in the book, because they are completely different and only one of them is yours.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.Lamentations 3:22-23

New every morning.

Now think about what that sentence assumes.

It assumes yesterday's are gone. That is the whole logic of it. Something that is new every morning is something that does not carry over, and the writer is not complaining about this and is not describing a problem. He is calling it faithfulness.

That is not a container. That is a supply arriving daily.

You are not built to hold four days' worth, and Scripture describes the supply as arriving new each morning rather than being stored. It is written that His mercies are new every morning, great is your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:23). The Holy Spirit does not fill a person on a Sunday for the week and then assess how much is left by Tuesday.

And there is a second picture, older and more pointed, and you will know it.

They were given bread in a wilderness for forty years and it came every day, and when they tried to keep it overnight it did not last. That was not a punishment. It was the design. The one thing they were never allowed to do was hold a surplus.

You have been trying to run on a store, and there was never a store. It is written that God gave them bread from heaven to eat, and it came day by day (Exodus 16:4), and the gathering was daily because the giving was. The Holy Spirit is present on a Tuesday afternoon as fully as on a Sunday morning, and He does not arrive by carry-over.

Now the thing about the leak, because I want to name what it has been doing to you.

The container picture has one inevitable consequence: every Tuesday becomes evidence about your fabric. Not about the week, not about the workload. About what you are made of.

You are not leaking, and there is no defect in you that Tuesday is measuring. It is written that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases and His mercies never come to an end (Lamentations 3:22), which puts the inexhaustibility in Him rather than in the capacity of the person receiving. The Holy Spirit is not disappointed by a Tuesday.

And I will not hand you a suggestion, because you have had them all and every one of them lands on the emptiest afternoon of your week as one more task.

There is nothing here to do.

And say this plainly with me: if the flatness has gone further than flat, if there have been thoughts about not being here, tell one person this week and tell your doctor. In the United States you can call or text 988 at any hour. Anywhere else, your local crisis line and one human being who knows your name. That is not a failure of Sunday. It is wisdom on a Tuesday.