We spend our days rubbing elbows with people who are — and admit it! – pains-in-the-butt. That’s right: A boss breathing down your neck. A new hire who can’t get the hang of it. That person at Starbucks who is oblivious to the space she takes up and has walled you off from the half-and-half. The one you’re married to ... who, these days, doesn’t seem like they’re married to you.
This hour is yours; in it, rub elbows with God. But be not mistaken: keeping company with the Holy One is no easier, no more constantly sweet, no less trying than as with anyone else at all. If it’s a real relationship with God you’re after, a deep friendship with the divine, know that it will be at times thrilling, and then disappointing, fulfilling and frustrating, boring and joyous and beautiful, even… jilting. And it’s work. Sometimes being with God is easy as falling in love, but other times it takes more sweat and concentration than calculus.
So we worship and stick at it – that is, we give ourselves to the good, hard, glorious work of being in relationship, of rubbing elbows with God and one another – in hope the work of worship would so annoy us, and awaken us, that whether it’s the Lord of heaven, or some louse in line for coffee, we learn to linger on with them, and with all, in love.
A reminder why our time in worship is like no other time, written for Jazz Worship, August 15, 2013.