It’s an instant world we live in. If our needs aren’t met immediately we get frustrated. Longevity has lost it’s attraction. We upgrade our cell phones every two years wishing it was sooner. We measure companies quarterly, and we choose our activities by the instant rush we hope to receive. It’s an instant world, which has given us so many benefits, but there’s a sting in the tail.
In the realm of spirituality, ‘instant’ doesn’t cut it. If we want a deep and fulfilling relationship with God, if we long to grow into the people we are meant to be, if we hope to make a positive difference in the world, this is going to take time and commitment. In spite of the promises in the books on the self-help shelves, no one becomes whole, healthy and spiritually strong overnight. And when I read a review of a book that promises to teach its readers to meditate like a Buddhist monk in just 30 days, I can’t resist the sorrow that floods me. I weep for those who sell themselves short by treating their most authentic selves, and their connection with the creator, like something you buy at a fast food outlet.
Unfortunately the culture of the instant has infiltrated our churches. While I love contemporary worship music, I worry when the music becomes the focus of our efforts. I love technology and I believe in using it in worship, but I know how seductive it can be, and how it can divert us into instant gratification, rather than the long, slow road of spiritual development. When we measure our worship by the goose bumps we feel, or by how well the band mimicked the latest worship CD, or by how dramatic the video production was, we have missed the point. We may feel an instant reward, but our souls have suffered the malnourishment of spiritual fast food.
At the start of a New Year we have a wonderful opportunity. We can make a commitment to long haul spirituality. Instead of measuring our worship by the weekly experience, let’s commit ourselves to waiting until the end of the year. And then, let’s judge our worship by how we have changed - by how we have become a little more like Jesus in his love for God and the world. Each week as we come to worship, let’s open ourselves, not to the instant gratification of a thrilling experience, but to the slow nurturing of a weekly discipline that will, sometimes, be thrilling, but, sometimes challenging, and sometimes just quiet and ordinary.
At the start of the New Year is a good time to reaffirm two profound truths about our worship. First, worship is not about what we do in church, but about how what we do in church changes the way we live when we’re not in church. Second, worship is not a weekly “fix” to uplift us and carry us through the week until our next “fix”. It is a discipline that we embrace with commitment and faithfulness, so that, through repeated practice over time, we are changed so that the world is better off for our presence.
Now that’s a resolution worth making.