You know, people thank God for all kinds of things.

For their health; for their cats; for the scraps of batter at the chip shop.

I understand these.

But I’ve always been a bit bemused that people want to thank God it’s Friday.

That Friday Feeling is surely a myth because Friday always seems to me to be the worst of days.

It’s the day when you wake up, after dragging yourself from Monday to Thursday, and realise that you still have another whole day to go.

It’s not the dawning of the weekend; it’s the wagging tail of the vindictive week, waiting behind the alarm clock to kick you in the teeth.

I’m sorry to start the day on such a gloweringly resentful note.  It isn’t kind at 7.15.

But there is a reason why I approach this Friday with such a jaundiced eye.

The reason is that I had a banging night out on Wednesday.

I went with a bunch of mates to see the great Alabama singer-songwriter and union campaigner Lee Bains III in a room over a pub.

It was fantastic; but a banging night out on a Wednesday inevitably comes at a cost.

And this Friday morning I am still paying that cost, in lost sleep and, I will confess, the tiniest, lingering suggestion of yesterday’s hangover.

Nonetheless, the evening offered a note of encouragement I am still clinging to as Friday looms.

At one point, addressing the nitty gritty of working life, Lee sang, ‘I thank God my God’s a working man’.

It’s at the heart of what Christians believe: that God not only became human but that he got up every day and went to work.  Jesus knew the heavy labour of the building trade.  He knew how to haul in a net full of fish with his mates and how to gut and clean the catch.

It may not seem much, but when it’s just us against the day, Friday or any other, in the loneliness of the early morning light, I reckon it’s solidarity that gets us through: we’re actually not alone.  There are colleagues and there are friends, and we’re all making our way steadily towards Saturday.

So, thank you all. It’s good to know you’re out there. Especially at the beginning of the end of a week with an ill-advised Wednesday night.

Listen to this Pause on BBC Sounds

Hear God’s A-Working, Man by Lee Bains III and the Glory Fires. That’s Lee at the top of the post.