Life WITH God

In his book, With, Skye Jethani, managing editor of Leadership Journal, writes about the different ways human beings seek to relate to God.  He argues that the basis for all human religion is fear and control.  We live in a scary world, he says, one marked by chaos, ugliness, injustice and scarcity.  We fear what might happen to us and, therefore, seek to find ways to control our world, protect ourselves from danger and alleviate our fears.  Enter religion.

Jethani then uses the first half of the book to describe for us four flawed ways we try to use religion to control our world: Life Under God, Life Over God, Life From God and Life for God.  The book is worth a read, but let me briefly define each of these ways religion seeks to relate to God and control the world.

Life Under God “seeks to control the world by securing God’s blessings via rituals and/or morality.”  We try to please God by living rightly and he rewards us by protecting and blessing us.

Life Over God “employs natural laws or divine principles extracted from the Bible to help us through life’s challenges.”  This view tends to see the Bible as a book made up of mostly (or entirely) principles for life that, if obeyed, will bring us blessing and control over our world and lives.

Life From God is about seeking to get things from God – material wealth, popularity, success, health – because in doing so we insulate ourselves from the potential dangers of the world.  In this view, God is a sort of cosmic vending machine.

Life For God “tries to extract God’s favor through faithful service for God.”  It believes that if we do enough for God, he will bless and protect us.  If we go to enough Bible studies, volunteer enough of our time, give enough of our money, we will be blessed.

Each of these approaches, though different, seeks the same thing: to control the world and alleviate our fears.   But each of them fails to do what we hope they will do.  Jethani then goes on to tell us that there is another way, Life With God.  This approach is not about seeking control, but surrendering control and trusting that God is with us and will be with us if we fall or find ourselves facing dangers that threaten to harm us or undo us.  

To borrow from our passages from James 4 on Sunday, if we are going to draw near to God, and have him draw near to us, we must do so in a life lived not over, under, from or for God, but with God.  That is, we must put into place in our lives the practices that foster the withness of God's daily presence.  He is there, of course - always.  But we need help in learning to commune with him in prayer, the reading of Scripture, attention to the Holy Spirit and the life-affirming presence of authentic community.  

Which way of life most describes your way of life (over, under, from, for or with)?  How might you move more into the surrendering trust in God Jethani talks about?  What practices most enable you to draw near to God?