Steve Argue
Steve is the Executive Director of the Contextual Learning Center and Adjunct Professor of Youth Ministry at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. He is the Co-Founder of Intersect, a ministry that provides leadership training and consulting to emerging leaders. Steve is currently a doctoral student in the Higher Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE) program at Michigan State University.
good friday... not really
- By Steve Argue
- Published 03/21/2008
Friday.
Good Friday.
Isn't for the "good guys."
The bad win today.
Oppressors oppress
Deceivers deceive
Mockers mock
Enemies gloat
Exploiters exploit
Haters hate
That's "good" Friday
So what's good about it?
Please don’t rush to Sunday.
This is Friday.
Ugly Friday.
Evil Friday.
Dark Friday.
Damn Friday.
It's here we need to go.
Not skipping past Friday to Sunday.
Walk up to Friday… get close … closer… and take it in.
Find something to get close to today.
Something that bothers you.
Something that wants to make you look away.
Teenagers with no parents.
Suicide the third leading cause of death for teenagers.
Teenager abuse of prescription drugs is on the increase.
Big business exploiting teenagers for profit.
Sex trafficking of young children and woman in the United States.
Abuse.
Poverty.
Addiction.
…
What if we were to look at it?
What if we were to get close enough to it to smell its stench and be so repulsed by the daily, damn Fridays of the exploited, that it would trip us up before we skip to Sunday?
This is where Jesus goes. To Friday. To everyones' Friday.
He is unwilling to say, "it is finished" until he says, "it is Friday."
… and neither can we.
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27)
