Sabbath

Last Saturday night was a struggle. After all, Sunday was coming.

Sunday was to be the day where my friends were going to be all trooping down to the National Cancer Centre for revision lectures. Excellent lecturers with great enthusiasm for teaching were going to dedicate their Sunday morning and afternoon to give us a breakdown on difficult topics that were going to come out for the upcoming finals. Nearing the finals, exam tips are bound to leak out, hints thrown into the audience.

But, Sunday is church day. It has always been. Service was to start at 8am as usual. The youth had planned for Chinese New Year visiting and my cell group was planning to go visit Crystal's house to play Kinect.

The decision was clear in my mind. From the start, I resolved never to skip church to study. But then, I thought how illogical it seemed, to pass up on good teaching just to hang out and play kinect? We weren't even going to do anything hardcore like bible study. Even if I were absent from church, everything would still go on as usual. If I don't go for service, I can sleep in till 9am, compared to 7am to wake up in time for service...Or maybe I could go for service first...and then hurry off at 9:30 to reach NCC by 10am? It's just CNY visiting anyway...I tried to rationalize it in my mind, but deep inside knew that I was making excuses for myself.

Sunday came, and I made the decision to pass up on the revision lectures. I confess that it was no more than half hearted as I woke up at 7am to get ready.

As I slouched into the chair, the preacher began to speak on the Sabbath of the Lord. Why sabbath?

1. To remember, how God saved his people from slavery to freedom (Exodus 16)
2. To keep it holy, acknowledging how God sanctified and blessed the seventh day (Gen 20:8-11)
3. To worship, through imitating God in resting on the seventh day
4. To rest, from endless labour and striving, knowing that God is our provider and security comes from Him alone
5. As a sign, of the covenant between God and his people to the surrounding nations (Exodus 31:12-18)

As MBBS draws nearer, I'm thinking that seeing that 1 more patient with good signs or going for that 1 good lecture is not going to do very much to save my ass if I am already doomed. I am convinced however, that every decision I made to choose other things over my own spiritual walk will be of great detriment to my well being. It will only get tougher, and I can only ask for lots of prayer, encouragement and discipline.

Anyway, Kinect was pretty funny :D