It’s weird how a long and demanding day can make you really appreciate going to church. My day started with signing on at the radio station, which meant bounding out of bed (sort of) at 430 a.m. and at the station by 5 for a 5 hour stint which today included a live interview with the president of Gateway Technical College. At 10, I had to race up to the Racine Theater Guild for a 1030 meeting with Doug Instenes and Kate Zavada to figure out the Havana ballet in Guys and Dolls. (We had to cut about half of the number and figuring out just what to keep and what to cut was a real headache.) From there I came home to a sick wife, to whom I tried to be nice and helpful – ran an errand to K-Mart – rehearsed with one of my Guys&Dolls leads – booked seven author interviews for the morning show – fetched supper at Subway for Kathy and me- and got to church by 5:45 to take care of last minute preparations before the choir appeared at 630 for rehearsal before the Maundy Thursday service at 7. All in all, it was an insanely busy day, but it somehow put me in just the right mood for tonight’s service. It’s almost like it takes all of the “fight” out of you and leaves you open and vulnerable in the best sense of the word. It probably helped that I’ve had a few demanding days before this one thanks to the Carthage Choir tour – plus the whole debacle with my car, which I dare say aged me ten years in the last two days. The words “come unto me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give thee rest” come to mind, and church tonight was exactly that sort of experience.
Not that I’m advocating insanely busy days for everyone all the time. I’m sure there are plenty of times when being too busy leaves you too exhausted for anything good to happen- but tonight I was just weary enough to have my defenses down and I found myself deeply grateful for every hymn, every scripture lesson, the sermon, holy communion and having it at the wheel- and even the senior choir rehearsal afterwards.
The very best time of the evening was when I grabbed a couple of minutes to finalize the music for the Seven Last Words for tomorrow night’s Tenebrae Service. Most of the time the music that I write for this part of the service is based on some sort of familiar hymn – in which I take one phrase at a time and write some sort of variation on it. I had already written 7 Last Words music based on “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” but I felt like there was something better inside me. Then I thought back to Monday of this week and to the beautiful funeral honoring a pillar of the church, Marge Anderson. The closing hymn for her funeral was “Jesus loves me” of all things- and it got me thinking about the timelesness of this hymn which we almost always think of as a children’s song. So tomorrow night during the seven last words, that’s what the choir will be singing- and singing it in memory of Marge Anderson. Maybe this is it- I walked into church tonight as Exhibit A of the phrase “they are weak but He is strong.”