Recently, a reporter with The Free Press attended something called “Secular Sabbath,” a Los Angeles-based club that meets occasionally to connect with a loosely defined “higher power.” At this Secular Sabbath, people hung out in a sauna, meditated, and colored pictures. 

Human beings were made to worship, whether they know it or not. At a time when church attendance is plummeting, people are still looking for God, even if in all the wrong places.  

One of the Secular Sabbath-keepers stated plainly that she “[doesn’t] want anyone to tell [her] the quality of God,” but rather “wants that to be [her own] experience.” Worship, however, doesn’t work that way. If there is a God outside of ourselves worthy of our wonder, He gets to set the terms. We don’t get to tell Him who we want Him to be and then feel like we’ve had a sacred experience. 

The false god of our age is inside, not outside. This is tragic and sad, since God is so much more than anything we could ever dream up.