We Need You!

This week I got a great CD in the mail that I ordered from Amazon.com. It was a CD that I discovered at the end of high school and just wore out in college. Christy and I used to listen to it non stop in the early days of our dating and then married life. It was by this country/rock band called the Jayhawks and I loved every track on the record. Well, after college, we moved back to Oak Ridge and into a house and before we knew it, Anna was born and our whole lives changed. It wasn’t long before we turned around good and discovered that we didn’t know where half of our stuff was. Sure, we knew where to find pacifiers and bouncy seats, but college degrees, passports and dearly loved CD’s had gone by the wayside.

Well, a couple weeks ago I thought about the Jayhawks and especially the first song on the record, which is one of my all-time favorites; and realized that we had probably lost that CD at some point in the whole process of our lives turning upside down. I scoured the house for the familiar cover art, imagining in my mind’s eye that I remembered seeing it in any one of a million places, but I had no luck. It was gone. I mentioned my deferred longing to Christy in hopes that she may have seen the CD lying around, but those hopes too were dashed.

Finally we had a chance to go out to Knoxville on a date together and after an awesome dinner, we went to every music store in town looking for the Jayhawks, but alas, we were unsuccessful again. In the end, we ordered it from Amazon and a week later, it was in the mailbox! I was so excited that I crammed it in the CD player as soon as I got back in the car! I just knew that hearing the first few chords of those songs I loved so well was going make my day… but it didn’t. I advanced to the next track, and still no explosion of joy… track after amazing track flew into my ears and totally bypassed my heart. What was happening? Then I realized… I needed Christy. I needed her to be there for me to really get into it. I wasn’t just longing to rock out to the Jayhawks… I was longing for someone to share it with… someone who loved the Jayhawks the way I did and knew every word on the CD as well as every slammin’ guitar solo! I needed to listen to that record with someone who cared about it too.

Hebrews 10:25 says, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” You see, it’s not just important to worship the Lord… (I mean, that is totally important!) but it’s also important that we come together to do this. It’s good to sing praises to Him, and I love to do it, but when there are a bunch of folks praising Him together, it’s even better! You see, when we are praising together, you’re telling my heart that what we’re doing is important. It’s more important than not being here. It’s more important than whatever else we might be doing. We encourage one another. We affirm the importance of worship. We need each other. I need you to tell me that this matters, and you need me, so let’s not give up meeting together to worship!