Strategic Sundays (08/16/2026)

I’m old fashioned, if you haven’t already guessed. I like the Sunday square on my calendars to be first in the row, not at the end. When I get to leave a calendar line and move to a new one, I celebrate the opportunity to begin anew. It’s a strategic day for me in which I identify who I am called to be and consider what I must do to become just that. It’s a day to acknowledge difficulties of the past but also blessings. It’s a day to focus on my essential relationship with the LORD privately but also communally as I gather with others at Church. It’s a day of hope.

Sunday is my day to “turn.” It’s a day of re-orientation toward my LORD. It’s a day when I pray for help in setting down those impediments I’ve encountered on the way. It’s a day when I recall all over again the price the LORD paid for my salvation and life in abundance. It’s a day of joy regardless of the weather because it’s a weekly reminder to me of the LORD’s loving mercy and the LORD’s desires for me personally. Sundays are strategic days for me.

On Sundays, I can assure myself that while there are obstacles in my life, with Christ, there is hope. He is the light no darkness can extinguish, not even a tomb. Sunday morning, as I sit on my porch and listen to the sounds of nature around me in a hushed world, I think of the LORD’s creation and realize that the LORD’s power and presence are all around me. And I seize upon the LORD’s promise of plans for me to prosper. Truly, no one wants me to succeed in becoming who I was created to be more than my LORD. And I seek to surrender to the LORD’s desire, the LORD’s will, for me and for our world.

On Sundays, I look ahead to what I know I am scheduled to do. I ask the LORD for help, for courage, for stamina for the race, for loving kindness even during trials, and for the grace to cooperate with the LORD’s help moment to moment along the way. Then I take a big, deep breath, and step into my week with the LORD.

As we continue on our way in Christ, let us honor Sunday as a day to recall wholly and deeply the price our LORD paid for our salvation out of love for us and a desire that we be reconciled with the Almighty Father. Let us use our Sundays as a day of “turning to” the LORD and away from those things that diminish our faith, overshadow our hope, and weaken our love. Let us consciously and strategically identify at least one thing we need to do to strengthen our relationship with the LORD and with others and commit to doing that this coming week with love.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.