You should know I’ve discarded a dozen or so ideas for this column before choosing this one. After that kind of struggling for an hour or so, it occurred to me that writing a monthly column seems to be a lot harder than writing a weekly one. Why should that be? It doesn’t even sound reasonable that 12 articles would be harder than 52 articles. But it is – and I think I figured out why. When I had the responsibility of coming up with 500 words by the end of every Tuesday, I tended to think about those 500 words every day. Oh, not constantly, but I was always looking for “an article” in everything that
happened during the week. I saw examples and illustrations and parables and inspiration and motivation in the commonplace and mundane as well as the spectacular and well-known. I was “in the routine” of focusing weekly on one thing – an article that might educate or motivate. During the past year, I’ve gotten out of that mindset. When my calendar says “write an article” this week, I have to basically start from scratch and start thinking about that one thing I used to think about all the time.
After all that cogitation about why I couldn’t think of a topic, I thought of a topic. The first day of the week. Could it be that God knew something about how humans operate when he encouraged us to get together every seven days and focus on one thing? Could it be that He knew such a weekly focus would cause us to see Him in everyday things? Maybe He knows that going a month (or 3 weeks, or 2 weeks) without really focusing on the ONE isn’t good for us. If all those suppositions are true, getting together every first day takes on a greater importance than some might think. If communal worship every seven days is a Divine idea, its more than a “Do I feel like going to church today?” kind of event. It may even be a condition for a more godly life.
I don’t intend to demand a weekly column again, but I do intend to think a little differently about what I’m doing this Sunday morning. I think it might improve the rest of my week. Why don’t you join me?