I’ve been thinking more about how it helps to think of God as a force, a law of the universe, much like gravity… and what problems are created when we think of God as a Being, no matter how Supreme.
The more I treat God as an underlying force to be relied on and to act in harmony with — like gravity — the more peace I experience in my daily life. I don’t need to make a leap of faith to believe in gravity, even though it can’t be detected with my senses. When I’m in synch with gravity, I move about without problems — with joy, even. When I’m not in synch with it, physical pain pays a visit.
Likewise, I don’t need to make a leap of faith to believe in God as an underlying force, even though God can’t be detected with my senses. When I’m in synch with this force, I experience peace — life without troubles. When I’m not in synch with it, psychological suffering pays a visit.
And here’s the interesting and tricky part: when I realize I’m psychologically suffering and that therefore means I’m out of synch, all I have to do is put myself in an “asking for insight” frame of mind. And then listen. Wait. Grab some solitude. And then ideas and help come. Every time. No leap of faith required. Reliable as gravity.
It’s tricky because “asking” in our culture implies another person being asked — in this case, God — which tends to trigger an image of God as a person. And when help comes, the tendency is to be grateful to That Person. Feel Loving. To want to Worship. Which, for most of us (not all), sows the seeds of a mental trap, that God cares about/loves me, therefore he/she/it is looking out for me, therefore good things are going to happen, therefore I’ll get what I pray for. And then life shits on me and I feel betrayed and quit seeking God as a source of strength and guidance.
None of this is original thinking from me. It’s mainly my making sense of the message in the book Coming to Life: Traveling the Spiritual Path in Everyday Life by Polly Berrien Berends.
Kent Nerburn included an excerpt from his letter to a young woman in a weblog posting last week. The excerpt ends with this:
“You seek absolutes, and though God is surely an absolute, God’s presence often is not. It is hidden in intimation, or cloaked in metaphor, as subtle as a whisper or a rustling of wind, at first almost inaudible and imperceptible, inseparable from ourselves. Only gradually does it burst forth full throated into music and song. And even then, it can recede at a moment’s notice.
I’d agree that this is how we often come to experience God’s presence but I’d argue that it’s our lack of perception, mental noise, and failure to learn how to listen that makes God’s presence appear to be fleeting. It’s always there for us to rely on. Like gravity.
FYI, I created the photo above using the nifty Church Sign Generator.