Wrestling With God

I wonder what your background is. For me, I’ve grown up in a Christian household believing in God from such a young age. The experiences I’ve had and the ones my family has had throughout the years served to solidify my faith. I know that this is not always the case for everyone. For some, you grow up in a Christian household and things happen that push you away from faith. Some grow up with a religious upbringing but find faith. And finally, some grow up without it and never gravitate to it at all.

However, I feel that many wrestle with faith. Whether you grow up with it or not, we seem to all have a journey of faith where our beliefs become our own - not just what we’ve been told our whole lives by friends or family. Even for established believers, there’s been this rise of the term “deconstruction" where individuals take apart their beliefs, seeking truth in all places, looking at what the Church and its people have done or said, and finding the actual truth that they believe.

Here’s what I have found though with this whole deconstruction movement. People are quick to deconstruct, but slow to reconstruct. The ability to define your reality is quite a powerful force that easily goes to your head. We love to live in a world where we set the rules. The issue is that we don’t get to have that power. That trap is the same one laid out by the serpent in Genesis - “live this life under your rules. Don’t let God tell you what your limits are.” Not realizing that the order was set in a way for a reason. (I’m going down a rabbit trail. Seriously, read We Whole Wrestle With God.)

I have found that God and His Word have always been correct. People’s interpretations, sure, sometimes they have been wrong. That doesn’t mean that God was wrong. It means that people listened to themselves and claimed to listen to God. (Section 2.7 if you want to read more about it. Blew my mind!) So go ahead and wrestle. Wrestle with God and His Word. Forego that which people tell you until you can verify it against the Scriptures. But Wrestle it. Don’t abandon everything and call it “working through your beliefs”.

Watch History

You Need to Listen To Your Wife!

In this conversation between Jordan Peterson and Steven Bartlett, they wrestle through beliefs or observations regarding two main topics: Marriage and Religion. It’s such an interesting discussion as Bartlett presses in to Peterson’s statements to really dig deeper than most would. Both of them share heartfelt moments talking through situations in their lives that have led them to their current wrestlings of faith and philosophy. I really enjoyed hearing the discourse between these two and I wrote down a bit from the first half of the episode.

Notes or Quotes from the Episode:

• Evil arises when good men hold their tongue. There’s nothing worse than to falsify your speech. 

• Jordan had 3 sources of additional income before the problems came up in his life with University of Toronto. That was intentional. If you notice that you can’t speak your mind then you are blocked in a trap.

On the topic of Marriage or Relationships…

• A marriage ends in divorce when there’s 10,000 fights that haven’t been had.

• “How do you find the right person?” Is the wrong question,

  “How do I become the right person?” Is a better question.

• How do you get rid of the devil at the bottom of the spiral? AKA How do you get to the root issue?

  • You both have to want to!

  • Ask yourself “What do you want?”

  • If you were taking care of yourself and could have what you need, what would that be?

  • Now tell each other the truth!

• When things are going well, evaluate and do more of what made things better.

• Remember the fact that you were in love so keep that in mind.

• Ideally, no sex until marriage and not even living together before marriage. 

  • The data shows an increase in divorce rate when people live together before marriage.

  • Living together is not the same as marrying them.

  • The message essentially becomes “yeah, you’ll do unless someone else comes along”

• The point of getting married is to solidify your bond in every way; mental, emotional, spiritual, legal.

• “I can’t imagine being with the same person for a lifetime”

  • If you established the optimized relationship with someone, they are inexhaustible.

  • The right person is not the same forever.

On the “Sexless Society”…

• Pornography is a terrible thing. Anyone can now look at more naked women in a day than any king in history ever commanded.

• It’s that easy to get sexual gratification and it’s not supposed to be easy.

• Those that watch pornography are then less concerned with pursuing things that help them appeal to women.

• The top searches about pornography are about how to quit.

  • People are desperate. There’s nothing heroic about it. There’s no accomplishment.

  • People are angry about it and what it has done to them and the world.

• Pornography gives the worst part of you exactly what it wants.

Takeaways

The last note I took was “Young men are increasingly searching for religion” and then I was completely invested in the conversation. This all takes place in light of Peterson’s book We Who Wrestle With God and this conversation just got me so excited to keep reading. It’s so interesting to sit and listen to Peterson share his personal revelations and beliefs as he has been wrestling with God. Not to mention getting to hear Bartlett’s personal journey of faith. There’s so much that goes into a person’s walk. We get to hear Peterson’s recent journey as well as he endured years of criticism and being extradited from the university and the associations of such that he was a part of.

There’s such incredible conversations that happen when you take the time to listen to a person’s story. Admittedly, this was one of the first times I started getting annoyed at Jordan Peterson. I really felt for Steven. He wanted to interject thoughts or questions but Peterson, being incredibly intellectual, has already had a lot of the questions or thoughts that Bartlett brings up so he just kept jumping ahead and interrupting as the statements were being made. Despite this, they did eventually reach incredible discussion that left me with some very valuable insights for my future marriage, for my faith, and for my interactions with people regarding such conversations.

Notable Mention

When talking about religious insights, this podcast from Joe Rogan is a great resource. I’m sure many of you have heard of this episode going viral and I listened through it as well. It’s a fantastic discussion between Rogan and Wes Huff as Huff provides evidence for the scriptures. I recommend this episode for anyone looking for additional evidence for the Bible to their repertoire. I love learning more about apologetics and having additional resources like this are super helpful.

Add to Watch Later:

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• Why "The Chosen" Resonates | Dallas Jenkins

Psst. I made a Playlist on YouTube for the videos I’ve mentioned here so that you can always refer back to it!

Reading List

We Who Wrestle With God by Jordan Peterson

I am finishing up section 2 of the book now and it’s been such an interesting journey understanding the conditions found in Genesis 2-3. He takes time to unravel Adam, Eve, the Fall, the serpent, the nakedness of man, and the deeper meaning of all of that. It’s so fascinating to see his deductions from what the passage says and its meanings on a grander scale of the human existence. I’m looking forward to moving into section 3 soon!

The Growth Log Library

I’ve compiled a list of the books that I mention in case you want to pick any of it up. Full disclosure, these are affiliate links. Doesn’t cost anything extra on your end, I just get a kickback if you use my link to make a purchase.