Starbucks named last Monday, the Mondayest Monday of the year. To help us through, the chain offered free brewed coffee to all who stopped in. Yours truly partook with pleasure! I assumed the “Monday, Monday” got the tag due to the cold, gray month and impending Hallmark holiday. The winter blues and/or uncertainty about Valentine’s Day does send some into the drearies but the worst Monday identifies something else. The Mondayest Monday is so named for Super Bowl hangovers: too much junk food, too much alcohol, and entertainment or team letdown. But that is all behind us now and we will have to pay for our Monday coffee fix.
What is also behind us is January, the new year month. It’s the month of resolutions, of fresh starts, blank slates and a clean sweep. The human heart and mind seek to move forward and give life another go. We are still in that fresh window of 2025, and I have a literal opportunity for a clean sweep.
Two years ago, I saw an ad in the post office for a broom sale sponsored by the Lions Club. I needed a broom for outdoor sweeping, so I called the advertised number but never heard back. Again last year, I saw the promotion and a quick text had a broom at my door in two days for $15! I also found out that the Lions Club corn fiber brooms are made by blind and visually impaired, supporting employment and education.
As pictured, I enjoy sweeping the front walkway, and our screened in porch is always in need of a clean sweep. When I sweep outside, I think of my parents-in-law. They were always intrigued that in the Polish (actually Ukrainian) section of their town, the women swept their sidewalks. Not having a sidewalk on their road, it seemed strange to them. As their daughter-in-law of Ukrainian descent, I smile when I grab my Lions Club broom to brush up our outdoor entries.
Now I’ve taken you readers from hangover Mondays to Lions Club brooms made by the blind, and Ukrainians who like to sweep, what is the conclusion? Clean sweeps are a good thing. We must live with our past and take responsibility for our choices, but with God, we can always claim a fresh start. As we push through the last days of the shortest month, which sometimes feels like the longest, we can lean on God’s promise that His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3 v 22-23), that we are not what we were (1 Corinthians 6 v 9-11), and that those who know the power of salvation through Christ Jesus’ work on the cross are a new creation: the old has gone, the new is come (2 Corinthians 5 v 17).
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