Thursday, July 7, 2016

THIRTY-SEVEN



All too often during worship, I get to the end of a hymn that I’ve just sung, and realize that I haven’t paid any attention to the lyrics. Any of them. I’ve been on autopilot, belting out the all-too-familiar words, lustily adding harmony to the “Amen” and then moving on to the next part of worship. Esther Cohen

Autopilot. How often do I function on what seems like autopilot? I have to admit, for me, it rarely happens during music. For me it happens during the words I’ve known and said since I was a child; the Our Father, the Nicene Creed, the Sanctus.
It happens in other places too. When I automatically answer “Fine” when someone asks how I am. And when I say, “Hey, how’s it going?” then I don’t take the time to listen to the answer. I noticed it when someone answered “Lousy” one day and I almost blurted out “Nice.” Thankfully, I didn’t. I managed to stop and listen, to take myself off autopilot and care about what was being said and the person.

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