It's Practice...

A comment heard during the Christmas Eve service at my husband's church...
"This is feeling more comfortable, but at the same time, more foreign..."

This from a person who doesn't regularly attend worship, and didn't attend any services for a long time...though born into the tradition and raised in the practice.

Right.  The more you do something, the more comfortable it is.  And, Right.  As you enter or re-enter something, especially on an occasional basis, it becomes more foreign.

Worship isn't magic, it's practice.  Any practice can be discussed in these terms.  One day I was visiting a church during the week and heard this strange shrieking sound coming out of one of the classrooms.  Many voices.  Shrill sounds.  All together.  Well, of course, it was children's choir practice.  They were warming up their vocal chords with this activity that, to the uninitiated, sounded strange at best and, with great imagination, much like a torture chamber.  Foreign...until you need to hit those high notes and understand the shrilling will get you to your goal.

Sports are the same way.  Writing--ditto.  When I taught middle school English and we taught writing, we did weird stuff.  We looked at pictures.  We listened to music.  We wrote nonsense.

"I don't have anything to say."
"Well, write that."
"Really?"
"Yep."  And in a few sentences, sometimes a page of repeated sentences that read, "I don't have anything to say," the kid with nothing to say would launch into something different.  They did have something to say.  They were writers.

People who watch a football game once or twice a year (yeah, guilty), find the experience a bit foreign.  What is there to get so passionate about?  Why are so many people interested?  But I do know if you connect with a team, follow that team, participate with other fans and do it all regularly, it makes sense.  It is even fun.  It might become a passion.

So all you folks who do the Christmas/Easter church thing and leave feeling like it is all foreign and you will never fully understand it...All you folks who don't know why anyone would worship weekly or spend time with others in Bible study...All you folks who assume if you don't have a completely awesome experience when you do occasionally come...Maybe, just maybe, you need some regular practice.

The carols, the candles, the clothes of Christmas are familiar.  But the meaning, the connection with life, the significance of the event will be foreign...unless we regularly practice.