Exploring the Challenge of Experiencing Divine Presence

Modern technology has become more than just a neutral tool—it has become a “superpower,” making the sensation of skill and semblance of progress almost effortless.

Personalized algorithms allow us to shed the seeming inconveniences of effort, connection, and patience that engage our human personhood.

In a landscape of automation and customization, how can we experience personal connection, satisfying discipline, and sincere growth in our everyday walk with God?

Join Jay Y. Kim as he welcomes Andy Crouch, renowned author, thought leader, and partner for theology and culture at Praxis. Crouch has written several influential books on faithful Christian living, including Culture Making, The Tech-Wise Family, Playing God, Strong and Weak, and, most recently, The Life We’re Looking For. 

In their conversation, Kim and Crouch explore the unique ways in which modern, “personalized” technologies are malforming our loves, desires, and sense of personhood. They discuss the unprecedented “superpower” that technology grants us to experience the illusion of power without the burden of effort. They draw a strong connection between our ever-shortening attention spans and our common struggle to experience God’s presence meaningfully every day. Our growing absence of personal discipline, coupled with waning relational connection, is informing a covert belief that following Jesus should be easy and require little day-to-day effort. Crouch challenges the way modern worship music often focuses on effortless spiritual experiences, which fails to speak to corporate realities and the full range of human experiences. Informed by Scripture and Christian history, Kim and Crouch encourage us to embrace God’s grace by committing to simple, time-tested spiritual practices that will open us up to the activity and presence of God over time.

Modern technologies seek to malform our sense of personhood through ease and convenience, yet the Christian life of noticing and experiencing God requires practice, focus, and intentionality.

Tune in to heed God’s call to a harder, better life sustained by grace.

This episode highlights the following themes:

• The illusion of effortless power in the digital age
• The distinction between personal and personalization
• The power of intentional, spiritual practices

Links from the episode:

• Learn more about Andy Crouch
• Read Andy Crouch's recent book, The Life We're Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World
• Read the transcript here

God is present; do we notice him? As the world gets louder, listening to God’s voice becomes increasingly challenging. We are bombarded by the chaos of our feeds, by distractions both inside and out, and by the everyday cacophony that drowns out the calm of a life lived in close communion with God. In this season of The Digital Examen, pastor, and author Jay Y. Kim guides us toward reorienting our lives so that we can notice God with the entirety of our beings—heart, soul, mind, strength—in both the mundane and majestic moments of everyday life. 

Learn more about The Digital Examen

Learn more about your host, Jay Y. Kim

Read Analog Church and Analog Christian by Jay Y. Kim

Listen to Meditations from The Digital Examen

Download a Guide to The Examen.

Links and Credits

✅ Special offer: Visit ivpress.com and use the code IVPOD25 for 25% off any IVP resource mentioned in this episode.

✅ Consulting Producer: Helen Lee

✅ Producers: Christine Pelliccio Melo and Travis Albritton

✅ Production Assistant: Jack Reece

✅ Sound Engineering: Honest Podcasts

✅ Social Media Managers: Allie Noble and Makayla Payne

✅ Podcast Art: Kate Lillard and Elsbette San Blas

✅ Theme Song: "For They Will Inherit the Earth" by Stephen Keech

Disclaimer: The comments, views, and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the host and/or the guests featured on the podcast and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of InterVarsity Press or InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

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