Customer Reviews

Wrestling with God

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am an atheist. For the past year I have attended bible study at Journey, the church founded by Rick Diamond after he left Riverbend Church and after he wrote this book. One might think that I'm biased, and I am to a degree, pulled in one direction by my atheism and in the opposite direction by my respect and admiration for Rick, whose whole mission in life is Love. I'm not even sure what Love is, but I'm hanging out at bible study, listening attentively, hoping that I'll learn.

So it is with mixed feelings that I read this book, cover to cover in just a few short sittings. It's not a long book, 172 pages, easy and fun to read and sometimes funny. But there are plenty of passages that really make you question your life. As an atheist, one might rightly say that I have no purpose, or at least haven't discovered it yet. As an atheist, I'm not sure that "Purpose" really exists apart from the wishes of our own egos. And I'm not sure that Rick's book really answers the question of what our purpose should be. But, in fairness, that's not what Wrestling With God was trying to accomplish, in my opinion.

The concept of "desert" is very big in this book. Wrestling With God uses the struggles of biblical characters (Jesus, Moses, Jacob, and others), characters from pop culture and literature (Luke Skywalker, Hamlet, etc), and real people, to teach us about how the desert can cleanse our spirit. The desert is a metaphor for struggle. It's a place where we are alone, where we don't want to be, but yet are there because of circumstance (foreclosure, cancer diagnosis, loss of a loved one). The desert is where Jesus fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, and where He is tempted. Luke Skywalker is tempted by the dark side of the force. Even though I am an atheist, I very much believe in the struggles of life. Maybe I'm missing something by not believing in God and the divinity of Jesus, and that's why I'm attending bible study and reading books such as this one.

The desert forces you to strip down to your bare nature, to find what is most important to you and to tear all the rest away. Your survival sometimes depends on it, both your physical and spiritual survival. I've been in the desert a couple of times in my life, and it is at those times that I turn to books such as Wrestling With God, and to people such as Rick Diamond, to help me survive. This book has helped me see that I need to start to focus on what's most important in my life and, most importantly, to find a purpose, a purpose that will help lead me out of the desert.

I recommend this book to believers and non-believers alike.

It's about time somebody took the ideas in the Matrix and ran with them. Kudos. There's an amazing wealth of metaphor in that movie.

I appreciated Diamond's honesty and openness, and I heartily resonanted with much he had to say.

What I was left with at the end of the book was, "Ok, I'm awake, I'm real, I'm alive. I have been for a while. Now what?" I suppose I was looking for something to take me beyond the "awakeness."

Overall, a good read. At times a little fast and loose with theology. But a good call to waking for those unawakened. I would like to see something now that addresses those who have been awakened, something that moves us to the next level. But I suppose that part is up to us. And God.

If you would like to read something without all the usual platitudes, that actually gets you to thinking about your relationship with God and all the stuff that goes with it, then you gotta read this book! Its like having a conversation with one of the great thinkers of christianity at this time. Way to go Rick!

I find that "Wrestling with God" is a book that gets down to the nitty-gritty of religion and the damage it can do to the people who allow 'religion' to put them into a box. A box in which they cannot freely express their feelings on God. A box which in the long run will bind them into thinking they are not as good as the 'secure-safe-perfect Christian'.
They find themselves being stalemated into the 'frozen chosen', as most often alot of the church members do. They are afraid to speak up and ask questions. They cannot continue to go forward on their journey.
So, in Rick's book, he directs alot of his attention towards the church that trys to put the followers in a box, to mold them.
He is very inquistive with the followers who don't go to church and with the younger generation who have a bad taste in the mouths due to the restrictions laid upon the followers of the church.
He lend them and understanding ear, partly because he sees himself as one of them too.
A very good read.
I changed my outlook alot.

I read what the one person who said this book is dangerous had to say, and while I always take into consideration the asessments of other believers, I think that person missed the message of this book because he/she has never been through what Rick Diamond is talking about here. At the same time, I don't think an atheist could really understand the message either. Allow me to exemplify: I personally am a young "postmodern" believer, disciple, and follower of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For the past several years, God has had me in a time of wilderness, the proverbial desert. Only someone who has been through the wilderness time with God (as we all must go to follow our calling, but most are not willing enough to press through) will fully undertstand the concept of wrestling with God. Rick Diamond validates, through the testimony of his own (and others') struggles, that yes, there are Christians who doubt, there are Christians who respect other religions, there are Christians who ask the same questions that atheists do (part of letting go of trying to control who God is), there are Christians who see God as much larger, much more mysterious, much more diverse, than what the modern American church has taught us for the past hundreds of years. We as a modern church have lost sight of God's simultaneous magnitude and relevance, His mysteriousness and omnipotence, His Glory and His Omnipresence. This book is a must-read for anyone who knows there is more to the Kingdom than what our culture has pre-packaged for us and called God, and should be read with prayerful consideration, as Rick Diamond does mention other beliefs and ideas (which God knows we think about and I'm sure accepts as part of human reality, why not just be honest about it?). When Diamond mentions other religions and topics from popular culture, he is not suggesting that God condones those things, it is simply part of our reality that must be should be made relevant and useful, not ignored like it doesn't exist, that doesn't help anyone. This book (and I'm sure Waking the Dead, which I will read next as the other person suggested) is an answer to prayer for believers who are looking for MORE of our LIVING GOD.

I randomly came across this book on the shelf. I am so glad I decided to buy it.

This is not your average 5-step program book on how to be a better Christian. Rick speaks to those of us in the Post-Boomer era. He speaks to those of us who feel disillusioned by success and upward mobility and are left with a feeling for something deeper and more real. What I really like about the book -- I was left with more questions than answers after the read.

He explains the need for stepping into our own "deserts" -- those places of desolation and pain to find reality. He encourages us to find the Matrix, so to speak; to open our eyes and really see.

Using very relevant examples -- from movies to references from current "saints" such as Bono and Alanis Morrisette, Rick speaks into our current post-modern culture with truth. He also uses strong references from literary sources that speak to today.

This is a book about real, gritty spirituality -- not formal, feel-good religion. Highly recommend for anyone fed up with, discouraged by, or questioning today's societal norms of "get more" and "do more."

This book is part of a new publishing company called "relevant books" where their mission is to bring real issues to the surface and address them with a healthy realistic Christian perspective. Many times Christians have a way of avoiding some of the most difficult parts and questions of life, putting white box with pretty bow answers on some of the most soul wrenching questions. Rick doesn't.

In this book, Rick will unpack the beauty and terror of wrestling with God. Wrestling with God is not something to be avoided, it is your relationship with God...those that don't wrestle just skim.

If you are ready authentic faith, an honest and fresh view of the Christian life, pick up this book.

My only critique is that the ending felt like a collection of scattered thoughts that he really wanted to add to the book. Overall, an excellent read!

Finally someone is willing to look at God outside the confines of our church walls. And at Christ as not something to be boxed, but to admit to not understanding. This book is truly mind expanding. Brilliant.

In Wrestling With God, Rick Diamond brazenly peels back the multiple layers of our generation's disquieted attitudes toward life and our often perplexing angst against God and drags it all into the open where he dares us to wrestle with it head on.

He asks big questions about himself, about life, about us as a race--questions that demand big answers. But he never demeans us by tossing out pat solutions for our mindless consumption. His is a quest of gray, not of the safer "black and white"--but the end goal is the same...intimate communion with an intimate, personal God.

If you want to encounter the real, dangerous, God of love--apart from all the imposed constrictions of religious rules and regulations, then this is where you begin...Read Wrestling With God.

Michael D. Warden--author of the fantasy epics Gideon's Dawn and Waymaker.

I am a member of the Sacred Mushroom Church. I can so relate to this book because the US Government has persecuted and even imprisoned members of my religion. This book speaks to those who have hit the rock bottom of existence and are ready for a real relationship with God. I love God so much.