The Daily Office and Sabbath

Our church study group is currently reading a book by Peter and Geri Scazzero called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality. The chapter we went over this time was called Discover the Rhythms of the Daily Office and Sabbath. Even though I'm agnostic, I can appreciate this idea in living one's life. In fact, in a way, I do practice the Sabbath.

The Sabbath is a 24-hour period of rest once a week. It doesn't necessarily have to be on a Sunday. Some people practice it on a Saturday, or whenever it suits them. The idea is to:

Stop - Sabbath is first and foremost a day of “stopping”. “To stop” is built into the literal meaning of the Hebrew word Sabbath.

Rest - Once we stop, the Sabbath calls us to rest. God rested after his work. We are to do the same - every seventh day (Genesis 2:1-4). We are to do whatever delights and replenishes us.

Delight - A third component to biblical Sabbath revolves around delighting in what we have been given. God, after finishing his work of creation, proclaimed that “it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). God delighted over his creation. The Hebrew phrase communicates a sense of joy, completion, wonder and play.

And Contemplate - Pondering the love of God remains the central focus of our Sabbaths. Sabbath has included worship with God’s people where we feast on his presence, the reading and study of Scripture and silence.

Many people, nowadays, are harried, running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They aren't living life, but doing life. It's about accomplishing tasks and little more. I think it's really important to take a step back and exhale regularly. So, while my point of view is a secular one and the book promotes a religious one, we do agree on the principle of a day of rest.

My Fridays are my Sabbath. I choose to take an extra day off during the week just for me. I can read, watch TV, go on social media, play Sudoku, go for a walk or not do anything at all. It's really great. To me, TGIF, really means Thank Goodness It's Friday. Not because the weekend is coming up, but my weekend has already started.

Small Group Study

A few of us from my church are reading Lee Strobel's A Case for Faith. I have to admit we've been taking our time. We pretty much meet once a month after reading one chapter.

In his book, Lee Strobel discusses 8 Objections people have towards faith (in God). They would be #1: Since Evil and Suffering Exist, a Loving God Cannot; #2: Since Miracles Contradict Science, They Cannot be True; #3: Evolution Explains Life, So God isn't Needed; #4: God Isn't Worth of Worship if He Kills Innocent Children; #5: It's Offensive to Claim Jesus is the Only Way to God; #6: A Loving God would never Torture People in Hell; #7: Church History is Littered with Oppression and Violence; and #8: I Still Have Doubts, So I Can't Be a Christian.

Personally none of those things really bothered me except for, perhaps, #1. In fact I could defend some of those objections, particularly objection #7. There are a number of people of from different faiths and religions that use the name of that particular religion to further their own personal causes. Or to justify some terrible act they have committed. I don't consider them to be true follower of their particular religions. They're just charlatans who are trying to defend their unjust behavior and nothing more.

I'm a bit torn between Evolution and Creationism. Evolution states that we all started as a single celled organism and evolved into so many distinct life forms. And that life started from an inanimate objects/chemicals. That sounds a bit far fetched. As well, I would expect to see more life forms that show progression from earlier stages of evolution to what we have now. There's too big a jump from an ape to a human for example. Why don't we see many other creatures in between? Though the alternative does seem a bit improbable too. That a higher being just put everyone and every living creature here. Of course it's not impossible. I suppose I'd have to give this topic more consideration.

I don't necessarily believe that prayer works. Lee Strobel gave a personal example in how prayer worked for him in his book. At one point his daughter's life was in jeopardy from a mysterious illness that doctors couldn't diagnose. Well, Mr. Strobel prayed to God about it and she miraculously recovered. Lee, at that time, was an atheist and said that he tried to explain the miracle away by saying it was just a coincidence that she got better when he really knew it was God that intervened.

Well, something like that happened at our church. A young boy was gravely ill. They whole church prayed for him. But, unlike the case with Mr. Strobel's daughter this young boy died. It happens all the time. People pray fervently for something and it falls on deaf ears. What happened then? Is God punishing us? Or does he even exist as an entity that Christians believe him to be?

Another objection I have that Lee Strobel failed to include in his book is something I consider pretty major. The fact that dinosaurs were totally omitted in the story of creation. We know they existed. There's no doubt about that. But, nowhere do they fit into the story of how God created the earth and all life on it.

I did a bit of research on the internet about it. Most accounts of how they fit into the story of creation are ridiculous. Some people suggest that dinosaurs did live in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve and that they were plant eaters like all other animals. Some say that dinosaurs are, at most, 6,000-years-old and that humans lived along side them. A few of them even question the scientists who say dinosaurs lived between 65 and 250 million years ago. They said things like, "How do the scientists know that dinosaurs lived that long ago? Were they there then?" That sounds like something a five-year-old child would say in a playground argument. All their theories are utterly absurd. Do they expect any reasonably intelligent person to buy into them? It's a vain attempt to explain a large inconsistency in the bible as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm a skeptic. I don't believe in anything supernatural. I don't believe in ghosts or spirits or that UFOs have visited our planet. Especially without us knowing about it. And I mean all of us, not just a few crazy farmers or whatever in some small town in the middle of nowhere that no one's ever heard of. To make me believe any of that stuff I'd have to see it before my very eyes. Then and only then will I take that step towards believing in it.