Day 58

After an enjoyable visit to family in Gretna, it has been back to work in the study. Yesterday I continued to reflect on Peterson's writing on the theme of Spiritual theology and today I have been mostly preparing for tonight's Special Church Meeting and some other church stuff too. Because I am on sabbatical I will not be chairing the meeting and so will be able to speak from the floor as a church member. I think this will be the first time I will have been in this position since becoming a minister in 1978.

Once again, no mention of football results from the weekend. As the fans often chant to their losing counterparts - you only sing when your winning!

This thought prompted other thoughts. Do we as Christians sometimes only sing when we are 'winning' ?( i.e. when life is good and we feel on top of things.) Shouldn't we be able to 'sing' in the midst of all the many experiences of life, even if it is simply a sad song of lament?

When writing about worship Peterson expresses the belief that worship is not something we experience, it is something we do, regardless of how we feel about it. The experience develops out of the worship, not the other way round. Worship is the response to God's word in the context of the community of God's people. Does our worship so often depend on how we 'feel'? Do we really only 'sing' when we are winning?