I am working my way through Skye Jethani’s book, With. It is a look into ways we manipulate God and the call to live life WITH God rather than in other ways that manipulate God’s response… or at least TRY to manipulate a response.
We don’t even know it’s manipulation. Yet, we live life exhausted from a seeming “lack of response” from God.
An example:
“Many battles in the so-called ‘culture wars’ can be explained by the opposing worldviews of those in the under and over God camps. For example, scientific research has shown that teaching teenagers about safe sex and condom use reduces sexually transmitted diseases. In many communities, however, religious beliefs dictate that only sexual abstinence should be taught, despite evidence that ‘abstinence only’ programs fail to reduce the number of sexually active teens. The battle over sex education in public schools is often fought between those with a scientific worldview (life OVER God) and those with a religious worldview (life UNDER God). One values empirical evidence and the other biblical morality.”
How we see the world (and God) effects our actions. If we live in hardened categories, we will fail to see the true activity of God in our midst.
“We may not want to admit it, but like secularism, deism, or atheism, many popular forms of modern Christianity leave little room for God.”
Apprentice 2 Jesus 