Bio-Rhythm & Spirituality

Something I've been really grappling with over the past few years is that as post-industrialists, we share a worldview unlike any that humans on our planet have held throughout history. Unlike the hunter, farmer, gatherers that make up the majority of our planet's time-line, our worldview is dominated by the scientific method and a mechanistic/industrial approach to life. We know the science behind the weather. We have the ability to plant and grow at anytime of year due to modern heating and greenhouse technology. We understand personality theory so we can understand people and we've got a systematic theology to our religion that explains away the nuance and mystery of problematic beliefs such as Trinity, Virgin Birth, and Angels.

Thus, whether we like it or not, our interactions with each other, with our work, and with our spirituality have in some ways been reduced to a modern, mechanical thing- ordered, sound, and much less messy than the craziness of centuries before.

And one downfall to our modern life is that we've become detached from the natural world. The bio-rhythms of nature were an important part of the farmer, the hunter, and gatherer's worldview. Nature, itself, was an integral part of their life and spirituality. But compare the life of the fisherman to that of most Westerners today- there's been some days when I've never left the house! And when I do, there's been plenty of times when my only interaction with "nature" is manicured lawns, cultivated hedges, and pavement. It's not exactly what I'd call God's Green Earth.

With this in mind, is it any wonder that we miss out on a lot of what the scriptures mean and what God has for us? For instance, Paul says in Romans that, "By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being."

Oh really?

Well, what about those of us who haven't spent much time looking at things that God has created? If I can spend most of my time looking only at things that man has created, then are the things of God really all that apparent to me?

Richard Dahlstrom, the pastor of the church we went to in Seattle tells a story about this very problem in his book- O2. When he was younger in his life of ministry, he thought he knew all the ins and outs of rational, reasonable Christian belief and would spend hours teaching through apologetics. But it wasn't his intellect that persuaded one young girl who spent a weekend under his teaching. Her understanding of God came through an afternoon hike in the mountians. When she finally saw the beauty of nature and the wonder of the peaks and valleys, she knew that Someone Good must have made it. She came to love Christ because she saw creation.

Now, don't get me wrong, this doesn't mean that we should necessarily go back to caveman living and give up our cars and houses and internet connection (unless God calls you to that). Rather, I think what it means for us is that we must be aware of the LENS (or worldview) that we use to study scripture.

We must be aware that we see the world- and therefore GOD- through the lens of modernity. And we must also be aware that these scriptures we share weren't written through the lens of modernity. They were pre-industrial revolution. They were pre-mass production. And with that in mind, we also need to be aware that what we think things mean in scripture- aren't always what they meant to someone else who read them during a different age and a different time. So, instead of trying to figure out what God is trying to tell ME, the individual living in the 20th Century, it may be helpful for us to find out what it meant to the original audience and then making an application to modern life.

But it's also helpful to pay attention to the rhythms of the world a little more, too. It's helpful to behold creation and to be a little more in tune with nature so that we can be a little more in tune with the One who Created it!