How does a master become mastered?

Fools 1 say in their hearts, "There is no God."
Psalm 14:1

I think if the psalmist rewrote this verse today, it would read: "Fools say in their hearts, 'There is only material.'"

Material. Things that you see with your eyes. Things that you hear with your ears. Things that you can reproduce, manipulate, understand, steward, grow, and master. That is all there is.

The modern age has brought with it many amenities. We no longer have to submit to the heavenly lights; we can now work around the clock, 365 days a year if we so choose. We no longer have to pray to the gods for healing; mere handwashing eliminates many of those diseases we have identified as germs. Great distances can be traversed in a matter of hours; what were defining journeys for an entire age of explorers have now become business trips for mid-level executives. What men and women gave their lives to deliver can now be safely transmitted through encrypted e-mail messages. Parents no longer need worry about their child's whereabouts; just flip on the GPS-enabled cell phone, send a text message, or interrupt their date with an antiquated phone call.

What we once had to submit to now submits to us. What once mastered us, we now master. What were once mysteries beyond our comprehension now appear in our grade school textbooks.

There is nothing left to discover. All that is left to do is systematize, manufacture, and reproduce.

It is no wonder we wonder where God is.

It used to be that life brought us to our knees. Power shifts were inevitable and often, and always brought with them war, death, rape, and captivity. The flu was synonymous with widespread death. A wild animal could befall a village, killing off the next generation. Children were stillborn; their mothers were afraid of dying at birth.

And people would pray, sacrifice, dance, cut, wail, fornicate, fast, worship, bathe, and cry out to their gods. They knew that part of living meant encountering things bigger than them, things they did not understand, things that were out of their control. They knew this because they the lived in it every day. The world was a magical place, full of good magic and evil magic. But make no mistake about it; it was magic.

No longer. We no longer sacrifice to the gods for a good crop... at least, most of us do not. We have things called grocery stores (which, by the way, exist only because we have good crops. We just don't have to see where all of that food comes from anymore.) We don't have to cut ourselves so that the gods will call off the plague and heal our people; we have CAT scans and blood tests and biopsies and X-rays, and people called doctors to interpret and prescribe procedures.

We fast only to lose some weight, or to "cleanse." We dance because the music has a good beat. We bathe because we want to smell good.

At no point are we forced to admit or come to grips with a part of life that we do not at least have the possibility of controlling.

And when we do, we almost feel violated.

How different we are than the rest of humanity throughout its existence. We are really the first humans who have to struggle to "fit" the supernatural into our normal mode of thinking and perceiving. We have to "make believe" or "imagine" for the spiritual to share in our world.

In a world where we have mastered all of creation, we have to create God.

Again, it is no wonder that we wonder where God is.

Alas, our exalted position is only a farce; our kingship only a false front. While we have mastered our surroundings, our own hearts condemn us. We are consumed with lust. We are addicted to greed. We must fight for our rights, our equality, our fuel, our way of life.

We are ruled by our ever-growing bellies. Anger grips our tongues. We speak of character and integrity and hope, but our own lives betray our many secret inconsistencies and hypocrisies.

We spend more than we earn. We save not as much as we should, and give away even less. We worship the image of power and sexuality and influence and charisma. And we couldn't stop worshiping them if our very lives depended on it.

And they do.

And no created God is sufficient enough to save us from ourselves. Only a God outside of us. Only a God that is not mastered by us... and not mastered by the things that master us.

How does a master become mastered?