Our former preaching pastor Mike used to say that we are a Costco generation – when we have a need, we don’t have to ask God for help; we get it from Costco.<\/p>\n
I find that true of myself.<\/p>\n
Have a problem? Google it.<\/p>\n
Call Dr. Laura. Get a self-help book. Ask a friend. Post it on Facebook. Find a therapist. Log on to a forum. Join a small group. There is an app for that.<\/p>\n
There is an overabundance of resources on every subject imaginable. And they are all\u00c2\u00a0 good stuff,\u00c2\u00a0 all very helpful.<\/p>\n
But I find that this “Costco” mentality has changed the way I view God.\u00c2\u00a0 Even as a Christian, I do not expect much supernatural intervention from God. I expect God to work through the usual channels to provide for me, thus I am not actively praying for God’s intervention.<\/p>\n
For example, we believe that\u00c2\u00a0 God works through a doctor to heal us. After a while, we bypass God altogether, save a perfunctory prayer to heal me of the infection when I know perfectly well that it’s the antibiotic that’s going to heal me.<\/p>\n
As a Western Christian, I am a pragmatist. Couple that with celebrating the power of the individual and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, where does that leave God?<\/p>\n
—-<\/p>\n
I had breakfast with a friend last week. She is a very insightful therapist, and once in a while, I run situations by her for some “free” advice.<\/p>\n
After I described what I was facing, she surprised me by saying, “You have to fast and pray.”<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, I advised another friend to find a good therapist. I just told her to fast and pray, and I will join her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our former preaching pastor Mike used to say that we are a Costco generation – when we have a need, we don’t have to ask God for help; we get it from Costco. I find that true of myself. Have a problem? Google it. Call Dr. Laura. Get a self-help book. Ask a friend. Post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-life","category-thoughts-on-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/katylee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}