A Weekend in Bed?

I suppose that there was a time in my life when the prospect of a weekend in bed would have sounded like a perfect way to prepare for the following week.  There must be many people for whom that is still a dream. I write this because the advertisers for a national hotel chain have taken to reaching out the public with a bed called “The Heavenly Bed.”  They are so confident of their approach to this marketing campaign that they have a registered trademark on the word “Heavenly”.   The copyrighted slogan they use is “A Weekend in the Heavenly Bed Makes it Easier to Come Back to Earth. Make Monday Better. Book a Westin Hotel.” 

It is marketing campaigns like this that make me feel the country is not nearly as opposed to God as some surveys suggest.  Would you spend millions of dollars developing a campaign around a bed called “Heavenly” if people didn’t believe in Heaven? If the week was “Hell”, then make the weekend “Heaven.”  That only makes sense if people know what those words mean and the concepts to which they refer.  So, the national surveys must show that while church is not popular, God still is. Thank God.

But who is left that can spend a weekend in bed, even if it is a slice of Heaven? Among people like me who try to figure out how to get people to think about God for one hour out of forty-eight, this is  a big question.  The church’s “customers”, like the hotel’s customers, are often busier on weekends than on weekdays.  Between sporting activities, family trips, home repair projects, charity runs/walks, Monday is often the relief that comes from the weekend, rather than the weekend serving as the “rest” for the week.

What a weekend in bed cannot offer, even for those who take advantage of this slice of heaven offer from Westin, is rest for the “spirit.”  Maybe that is the campaign someone needs to develop for the “spiritual but not religious.”  What you really need to make Monday better is the confidence that comes from knowing there is a purpose to your work week other than chasing the dollar. What you really need to know is that there is a meaning to life that you find only in serving God and Neighbor. What you really, truly need to hear on the weekend is that Someone loves you just as you are.  There is a Heavenly rest for you, for today and Monday. But you won’t find it in bed.