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The Steve Laube Agency

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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Faith

Faith

Gray Saturday

By Steve Laubeon April 19, 2025
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I wrote this many years ago and post it every Easter weekend as a reminder. May it speak to you in some small way.

Gray Saturday
by Steve Laube

Holy weekend is such a study in contrasts.

Friday is dark. Somber. Frightening in its hopelessness and pain.
I do not like Dark Fridays.
The nails bury themselves deep into my soul.
They become a singular stake through the heart of this sinner.
Piercing. Rending. Bloody.
Vanquishing this creature of the night who dares to follow his own way.
Christ’s death becomes mine.
The death I deserve.
Alone. Anguishing. Agonizing.
There is no one or nothing that can assuage this dreary weight upon me.
I stand in silence. Staring at the stars and wondering if they can hear my cry or if they care.

Saturday is Gray.
Caught between the darkness and the dawn.
We move around as if yesterday had not happened.
Errands. Busyness. The routine. They conspire to distract from the lessons.
The mundane becomes standard. Bleak. Meaningless. Gray.
Why did Jesus have to wait for the weekend?
Why this middle day of contemplation and forgetfulness?
When night comes we will have survived the gray day.
But only because we know tomorrow is only hours away.
What would it be like if we did not know such hope?

Sunday is Light.
A celebration of life, love, and hope.
It is only because of Sunday that we can face the Fridays of turmoil.
Lift your face toward the dawn.
See the grace that speeds across the hills as the sun licks each place with its touch.
The Son touches your face and the chills of rapture spread to the tips of your toes.
This gives us reason to live.
This gives us reason to love.
This gives us reason to hope.
To live where there is no life.
To love where there is no love.
To hope where there is none to be found.

Unfortunately, we all live in the Saturday Gray.
Forgetting the darkness and depth of our sinfulness.
Forgetting the truth found in the dawn.

Let us be mindful of this during the coming months.
We have been given a choice of days in which we can live.
None of us want to wallow in Dark Friday.
None of us should be satisfied with Gray Saturday.
Instead, let us celebrate and embrace the peace and warmth of the gracious gift of Christ’s resurrection and life.

© 2002 Steve Laube

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Category: Faith, Personal, TheologyTag: Christian, Faith, Personal, Theology

Handling Disappointment

By Steve Laubeon June 19, 2023
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I do not like to experience disappointment. I do not like rejection, even when it isn’t my personal project being turned down. I do not like to be the bearer of bad news. And yet I do experience disappointment, rejection, and the telling of bad news–every week. That is the nature of the arts. The arts (meaning music, writing, dance, and painting) are comprised of thousands of hours of …

Read moreHandling Disappointment
Category: Encouragement, Faith, Get Published, Personal, Rejection, Theology, Writing CraftTag: disappointment, Encouragement, Faith, Rejection

All Wrapped Up

By Steve Laubeon December 19, 2022
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When I was a boy, my family had the tradition of opening our gifts on Christmas Eve. But another tradition was that there would be one more gift waiting for us the next morning, Christmas day, from “Santa.” I have a vivid memory, as a little boy, of being disappointed one Christmas Eve that the thing I wanted most was not among my unwrapped presents. However, I knew, I was just certain, that it …

Read moreAll Wrapped Up
Category: Christian, Faith, Personal, SteveTag: Christian, Christmas, Faith

Wishing You Peace and Love on Thanksgiving Day

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon November 26, 2020
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On this Thanksgiving Day, let us approach this new season with a sense of peace and the constant reminder that the Lord is in control. I post this well-known prayer in hopes you might appreciate reading it again. From St. Francis of Assisi: Prayer for Peace Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; …

Read moreWishing You Peace and Love on Thanksgiving Day
Category: Personal, TheologyTag: Faith, thanksgiving, Theology

The Only Answer

By Steve Laubeon December 17, 2018
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Hope you had a blessed Christmas!

The last four weeks I have posted what was, in actuality, an Advent series. Note the key words in each post:
Wait
Prepare
Expect
Give
 The Christmas season is one that is full of family, fun, food, and friends. But under it all is the foundation of our joy. The answer to our greatest longing. Of course, saying there is an answer assumes there is a …

Read moreThe Only Answer
Category: Agency, Christian, Faith, PersonalTag: Christian, Faith, Writing Craft

Prayers for the Nation

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon July 5, 2018
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 As we celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the United States this week, it is my privilege to offer prayers that are timeless yet needed today more than ever. These can apply to any country. I hope you will be blessed by these prayers from The 1928 edition of The Book of Common Prayer. A Prayer for Congress. MOST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as for the people of these United …

Read morePrayers for the Nation
Category: Personal, TheologyTag: Christian, Faith, Theology

Creative Boundaries

By Dan Balowon April 3, 2018
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Creative people usually don’t like being told what to create or what not to create. Similarly, explorers and researchers don’t like being told, “Don’t look there,” or “Explore over here.” By nature, they follow their training and instincts from place to place and thought to thought. As a writer, while the worst thing you could do is plagiarize someone else’ work, the worst thing someone else could …

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Category: Career, Communication, Creativity, Inspiration, PlatformTag: Career, Creativity, Faith, Inspiration, The Writing Life

Author Platform and The Laws of Attraction

By Dan Balowon December 5, 2017
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Whenever someone communicates anything in any form, the message will either attract or repel readers, listeners or viewers. All communication is like a magnet, with north and south poles. What you do in social media or blog for your author platform will either cost or earn readers. No matter what you do, the best you can hope for is a net positive, with more people friending, following and …

Read moreAuthor Platform and The Laws of Attraction
Category: Marketing, Platform, Social Media, The Writing Life, TheologyTag: Faith, Marketing, Platform, Theology

Your First Writing Assignment

By Bob Hostetleron October 25, 2017
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If your writing doesn’t start with this practice, you’re cheating yourself. Lauren Winner, author of the wonderful memoirs, Girl Meets God and Mudhouse Sabbath,  tells about an experience she had when a writing student of hers showed her part of a memoir that was astounding, far better than this student’s usual writing. Winner asked the student what had transformed her writing over the course of …

Read moreYour First Writing Assignment
Category: Career, Faith, The Writing Life, TheologyTag: Faith, Prayer, The Writing Life

The Challenge for American Christian Authors

By Dan Balowon September 26, 2017
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The majority of Christian books published every year are written in English by authors in the United States. U.S. Christian publishers in a billion dollar industry publish many thousands of new titles every year. Still, I am not sure all American authors who desire to have their books spread across the globe and translated into various languages have the credentials nor the global insight to be …

Read moreThe Challenge for American Christian Authors
Category: Communication, Publishing History, The Publishing Life, The Writing LifeTag: Christian, Communication, Culture, Faith, The Writing Life
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