how long, O Lord?

I am a Pastor and a Lutheran Christian. Therefore, worship is a significant part of my life. I believe, however, that every act that is pleasing to God and consistent with the way of Jesus, is an act of worship. But for many, worship is a holy hour on Sunday mornings.
Worship. I want to spend a moment addressing an important aspect of worship. Not music. Not art. Not the type or "model" of worship that has been debated in the modern age as part of the culture wars. But another intersection between culture and the worship of GOD. Time.
How long is too long to worship God? The sports gods require anywhere from several hours to several weeks or even months of devotion. You can't play a round of golf in less than three hours. The entertainment gods require no less than 22 minutes (average length of a 30 min. sit com) to as long as several hours for a film, a concert, or a live show. The ad gods can catch your attention in 30 to 60 seconds. Pop culture thrives on fast paced media, in one ear and out the other. Pop songs are not longer than 5 minutes. Somewhere between a sound bite of information and a five hour baseball game, that's how long the gods of our culture expect our devotion. And that's how much we give. More time and money is devoted to these gods than I can mention here. You know. We're all guilty of worshipping these idols.
But what about the worship of GOD, the one who raised Jesus from the dead? The one who commanded us to love one another, who commanded us to make disciples, to baptize and teach, to do this in remembrance of me? How long does it take to worship Jesus in the assembly of believers? An hour? 30 minutes?

From "By Way of the Desert: 365 Daily Readings" I read this on June 8, 2009:
"From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD." Isaiah 66:23.
Two desert hermits met and cooked some lentils. They decided to worship God before they ate. One of them recited the Psalms; the other read and meditated upon two Major Prophets. When morning came, the visiting hermit departed. They never ate their lentils.

Could it be that asking chronos questions with respect to worship is asking the wrong question? If worship is aligning one's actions to one's hearts deepest devotion and affection, then is not the length of time we spend in worship a foolish question? Might one characterize one's devotion in terms of how long one spends in worship, as opposed to how short? If you are willing to devote four hours to golf every week, but only one hour to worship of the Holy Trinity, what does that say? Cubs fans have stuck with the Cubs for a long time. Years of disappointment and unfulfilled longing. They are the poster children for misplaced devotion, but also in uncharacteristic faithfulness. What might be learned about us from these disparities? We are weak, idolatrous, sinful, and faithless? Yes. Forgiven? Yes. But are we freed from our bondage or do we prefer slavery to the idols of our age, who offer no promises worth trusting.

In the above story from the desert hermits, worship precedes and even supplants eating. And it seems that the center of their devotion was God's Word, not their own stomachs or agendas.
To whom are we most devoted? Is that not the question we might ask? Everything else is merely an idol, the self being the most highly praised idol of all. We are devoted to our own comfort, our own wants, our own expectations.
May we come to see worship of GOD as an act of true devotion that transcends chronos time; and may we come to see our days lived in relationship with Jesus and every action therein as a form of spiritual worship.