I'm just like everybody else

It turns out that I can get annoyed over styles of worship, just like everybody else.  This came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I've a pretty broad experience of worship styles and I'm comfortable with a broad range of muscial styles.  Liturgical worship?  Fine by me, I can worship while singing "O Thou the central orb" or "Blessed city heavenly Salem" just the same as while singing "When I survey" or "O to see the dawn".  Heck, why not go all out and sing in latin: I've done my fair share of Sanctus, Gloria and Kyrias - and enjoyed praising God through them.  If you want to swing from the rafters waving a flag - grand, just don't be offended if I decline to join you up there - but you and I can worship together just fine.

So what happened me yesterday?  We were singing a few of the old "classics".  We even used the traditional tunes.  There were quite a few changes to the words but I'm ok with that as they almost always are an improvement.

My problem yesterday was the speed of the hymns!  How can that irk someone so much?

I sort-of-know the bass line to some of the old hymns and I enjoy singing the bass as its better suited to my voice. I don't have to skip out notes because they are too high (or low).  I enjoy hearing harmonies when I sing so I try to provide a few of my own.  The thing is I'm a bit shakey on the notes for some tunes, and without an organ (or another bass standing beside me) to support me I've to make a bit more effort and take time to get my notes right.  Then my heart soars in worship.  But when the music is moving at that pace I'm blown out of the water.  Forget singing the bass line, I reverted to the melody and clung on for dear life to the roller coaster ride that was singing those hymns.  And that's the problem.  I was only singing.  People sing in the bath.  People sing in a crowd at a sports match.  People sing on the X-factor (ok, this is dubious).  Singing's all well and good - and it is good - but I don't just want an endorphine high from singing some song.  I want to worship while I sing, and I couldn't do that yesterday due to the speed.  I couldn't think about the words or the meaning or the sentiment of what I was singing.  It was mechanical.  It was biological.  It wasn't worship :(. 

Is this a fair comment?  Is it unreasonable to want to slow the song down, to take the time to worship?  To me it's like comparing a 60 second sprint through a daily bible verse against a quiet time where you take the time to meet with God.  I wonder if I will get over this, or how will I deal with it as it happens again and again.  I'm learning to cope when a worship leader repeats a song over and over and over and over and over again (another peeve of mine, obviously).  Perhaps I'll get used to blasting through hymns as well. 

I'm going to need some grace.