Standing on Guard… Always!

One’s resistance against the principalities and powers must be diligent! I disappointed myself and, I am afraid, others on Sunday morning.

We have been having very joyful Sunday mornings for about a month or so. They have been awesome, and we have left encouraged. This last Sunday was not the same. There weren’t nearly as many of us. So many people were away. The weather was rainy and dismal. I was asked by the worship leader if I would play electric guitar since the regular player was absent. I said sure. I usually don’t play in the band because I want to be attentive to what’s going on.

Almost as soon as worship started I could tell the mood in the room was not a happy one. It was obvious to me that there were many people who were very down and discouraged. But I was so involved with the music, playing the guitar, that that intuition fell back in line, giving way to my present priority of trying to play an instrument half decently.

Then after I taught and closed things up and we went home, I realized then what had happened. It was a tough morning. I would have been more aware of it almost immediately and stopped everything to address the actual condition of the people there. But no… the machine ground on. Even though some think we are free of liturgy, that is completely untrue. We have our own kind: we start with worship for about half an hour, then announcements, the a short break, then teaching time, then ministry time for prayer, etc.. And that’s exactly what we did last Sunday morning. The machine kept dutifully and faithfully turning to the neglect of the actual flesh and blood people sitting there in their sorrows. So like an institution, an organization, and its cronies, to be so consistent in its neglect of people.

I was distracted. I have to remember that even though one can be aware of the principalities and powers and their relentless insistence on neglecting, abusing and destroying people, it doesn’t mean that once you understand this they go away. One must be continuously and incessantly on guard. That’s if you want to love people and care for them. Which I failed in last Sunday.