I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let’s go to the house of the LORD.”
PSALM 122:1 (CSB)

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Today is Sunday. It is the first day of a new week. The week now past was eventful. There were important meetings and deep conversations. There were training events, planning events, and medical procedures. 

Today as we gather for worship, we will put all of these things in perspective. We will praise God for who he is. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As he has actively guided his people day by day through all the events of time, so has he guided us in the week now past. So will he guide us in the week to come.

We will thank God for this past week’s good news, good work, and good relationships. We will thank him in advance for how he will guide us through the days ahead. We will seek his grace, mercy, and guidance for the things we can see and those we cannot. 

We will look around at those gathered with us in worship and know each one is on a journey, each one experiences God’s reality in one measure or another. We pray for one another and encourage one another. We celebrate with one another and weep with one another. 

Together we celebrate and contemplate, we sing and we pray, we hear God’s truth, we adjust our lives. 

Worship is not a show for saints and sinners. Worship is a gathering of people on pilgrimage. We are all works in progress. We take life a day at a time, often wondering if anything meaningful is happening in us, through us, or around us. It is on Sunday quite often when the mundane moments of long days and longer nights gain clarity. It is on Sunday when perspectives shift. It is on Sunday when we realize and remember God’s promises and that there is a larger family who seeks our success. 

One more cup of coffee, a shave, a shower, and a gathering of Bibles and Moleskine notebooks and off we go to join others in worship and commitment. 

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I will join the church gathered in joyful celebration and loving contemplation.

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Our Father, thank you for Sundays. Thank you for these regular days of worship and rest. Thank you for family and friends who gather to sing your praise, to learn your truth, to adjust our lives, and to prepare to join you in work that also feels like worship when we do it in a manner that honors you and serves others. Amen.