Mature religion and spirituality are not magical ways in which we manipulate the world to make it come out to suit our needs and desires. Such methods do not exist. Rather, religion and spirituality help us to understand and cope with our world by finding meaning in it. To be sure, that path requires more energy than believing in incantations which force a Divine being to change Its mind to suit our will and the deceiving ourselves that the only reason our prayers didn’t work was because we stumbled over a word or had our fingers in the wrong position. We need to face life head on!