Happy Friday the 13th!

If you have looked at a calendar, you would know that today is Friday the 13th. In fact, it is the third time this year (and the last) that the 13th of a month has fallen on a Friday (and all three have occurred exactly 13 weeks apart!).

Why is the # 13 considered "unlucky?" (So much so that the dorm in which I lived during my college years - which was a former hotel in center city Philadelphia - had no 13th floor! It had a 12th and 14th floor, but no 13th! This is quite common in building taller buildings. The Lancaster Marriott has no 13th floor either!). The answer to this question is long and complicated. But after doing some research, here is my conclusion. If something is said long enough ... and frequent enough ... and fervently enough ... people begin to believe it. It does not matter how outlandish it might be .... but at some point ... what is being put forth becomes, at least for many, truth! 

Unfortunately, that has not happened with the message God has been putting forth for the past two thousand years. Many people have heard this message over and over again but have chosen to ignore it (and, yes, there are far too many who have never heard it!). Why have people accepted this ridiculous message about Friday the 13th, while at the same time rejecting the most important and life changing message ever offered up to humanity? Jesus gives the answer. In the gospel of John, he says, "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil" (John 3:19). Friends, don't get discouraged when you share the good news of the gospel with another and get no interest (or some hostility). People would much rather believe anything rather than God's truth (this should be a CALL TO PRAYER for us to ask God to open the eyes of the blind around us!). 

This morning as I read the paper, I noticed an article about Friday the 13th. The writer lists several superstitions associated with the day. The first? "Don't change the sheets on your bed or you will have bad dreams." Gulp! My wife changed the sheets this morning! Guess I had better wear my bike helmet tonight in case I fall out of bed as I fight off my nightmares!  

Thanks for stopping by . . . 

pj

P.S. - My wife and I were married on May 13, 1978. We have enjoyed a wonderful marriage together ... for some 34 years now and counting! - Thank YOU, Father!