The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed at the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or, they argue against it, as if they knew what it is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertions, and egoic delusions, such as “My or our God is the only true God, and your God is false”..
(Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
I’m way behind the reading power curve, I know, but I just downloaded this book and started listening to it as I made a 300-mile trek earlier this week. I heard Tolle’s soft, German voice read the above quote once, twice, and then rewound for a third. I need to hear it far more.
This word “God” gets us into big trouble.
- Vast swaths of history are darkened with demand for absolute definition (and subjective definitions of obedience).
- Individual lives are wracked with guilt and angst when individual thought (or doubt) clashes with organized religion.
- Churches divide and/or people abandon the church altogether.
- Families fall apart.
- Abuse occurs.
- Wars rage.
- Politics become religious agenda and vice versa.
- Women are devalued.
- Men misunderstand/misuse leadership and power.
- Lifestyle choices become ethical categories for litigation and vitriol.
- The list goes on and on.
And rarely if at all, in any of this, is “God” experienced with equanimity, expansiveness, and grace. Or, if so, only by a select few at the exclusion of all who dissent, question, or don’t care. Only facsimile. Only representation. Only mistaken identity. Only “man”-made constructs. All fall short.
I don’t have an answer to this question of “God?” But I’m beginning to wonder, at least for myself, if part of it comes in trying to not understand; trying to not think and reason and logic it out; trying to not grasp, incorporate, or comprehend what defies not only my imagination, but my thinking-weary brain. Maybe I need to stop trying altogether!
What if God or the Divine or Being or Enlightenment was not dependent on me, didn’t require my comprehension to exist, didn’t need my acceptance or belief to be real? (I know: shocking!) What if God or the Divine or Being or Enlightenment was nothing I need try to conjure up or understand in any way, shape, or form; but just was/is/will be? (I know: shocking!)
What’s most shocking is that, at least in my tradition, this is how God self-defined anyway from the very beginning: “I Am.”
Why, again, have we made this so complex? My head hurts.
…don’t seek to grasp Being [or God] with your mind. Don’t try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still.
(Eckhart Tolle)
None of this means that I no longer think of/on God. Rather, it means that I can think/feel/imagine/understand in my own ways – with no limits or constructs. It means I can retell and reclaim stories that have been buried under mountains of misinterpretation. It means I can escape boundaries of gender. It means I can experience “I Am” in ways heretofore unexperienced, unspoken, disallowed. It means the sky’s the limit. It means everything.
Deeper breaths. Headache subsiding. Hope renews.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I think God *does* exist whether we believe in Him or not. I do believe that God desires personal relationships with each of us, and that there are certain things that are ‘knowable’ about Him through what He has revealed in His word. (Which is one area where churches tend to get it wrong. It doesn’t start with church and religion. It’s a personal relationship with God and spirituality which, for me, church attendance and serving is a ‘work’ I do as an outgrowth of that and not the other way around.)
The things Tolle lists and many of our own struggles come not so much because we try to understand God, but because we *don’t* understand God and so turn Him into *our* image. (It also happens when we get it in our heads that God somehow needs us to be His personal emissary making sure that things go the way He wants them to — as though God needs our help in those ways.
What is it Anne Lamott said? Something along the lines of you can be sure you’ve made God in your image when He hates all the same people you do. And yes, while I use ‘Him’ as a pronoun, I think God is genderless. 
)
And so this is the point that I’ve come to, even through the Bible. We can’t fully understand or ‘know’ Him. Yes. There are things we can know. But that leaves the majesty and the mystery and the totality of Him out. It makes Him small and human when we relegate Him to only that which we can understand. It’s the reason I love the poetry in Job. I used to read it and be terrified, but now I see mystery and vastness and something beyond comprehension (something that is *good*, by the way
). I mean, “Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, And caused the dawn to know its place”. That’s awe-inspiring to me personally. Or my favorite, when He asks, “Where is the way to the dwelling of light?”
So yes. I think there’s a level at which we can know things about God. But then I believe it’s about His presence and feeling that in as many moments in our daily lives as we can and that we can let go of a certain amount of intellectual pursuit in knowing that there’s just a bunch of stuff that we just aren’t going to be able to fully comprehend. So we can relax. And breathe. And learn to *experience* the Divine more than study Him.
My apologies for such a long comment.
I love where you’re heading with this though!
Love!
deb
I think your word count was even higher than mine! That hardly ever happens, as many words as I use.
I understand what you’re saying, Deb. The thought processes, theology, and concepts, as you know, make total sense to me. ‘Appreciate your ability/desire to articulate what is so compelling for and important to you. This is the beauty of conversation – and even conversation about God or the Divine or Being or Enlightenment: no matter what we call it or how we experience it, it is ours…to strengthen or not, to understand or not, to inculcate or not, to acknowledge or not. And no matter where we land or move, there is always more to explore and consider – hopefully together vs. apart. Thanks for being here.
As someone whose bum is currently on the fence about this whole “God” thing, this is enlightening to me. I’ve always thought of God (and Christians, I’m sorry to say) as really terrifying. I know my history. I also know a handful of radicals. It scares me to my core to think that there are people willing to kill (and die) to prove that their God is the One True God.
My husband comes from a Christian family. My mom’s Catholic. Dad’s Anglican. My best friend is a Wiccan Priestess. I’m starting to think that conversations about religion are less intimidating than they used to be, partly because I’m starting to think that I’m a religious mutt. And I’m okay with that. It’s calming to know that I can believe without getting caught up in the semantics. Very calming indeed.
Amanda Farough´s last [type] ..All the world’s a shopping mall
I love this, Amanda: that you will even enter into a conversation that tends to be more harmful than healing all too often; that we have more in common than not; that semantics are nothing but that; that” calm” can even be a word applied to religion. You, my friend, are so good for me…so who I love to explore the possibilities of belief and faith with. ‘Grateful for you. Yes, very calming indeed.
Amanda you’re not the only one who’s a religious mutt. I consider myself to be a Christian Wiccan.
Shawna R. B. Atteberry´s last [type] ..Why Godde
‘Love this, Shawna!!!
Even as I child I thought it was foolish to “put limits” on “God” by attempting to define the divine. I got kicked out of more than one Sunday School class for being “difficult.” I wasn’t being difficult; I had faith – real faith – and I couldn’t understand why everyone kept trying to force the limitless creative bounds of the Universe into the image of a mere man with an imagination held back by the simple senses of a human mind. It seemed like everyone was insane. As long as people tried to put bounds on the boundless, my faith was in distress.
As I grew up I came to understand that childlike curiousity demands definition as it ages; complicating things in the attempt to simplify. The process of limiting and archetyping is a natural to human beings as breathing. We like to call it Science: logic, reason, philsophy… but all math becomes political. I see great use in the pantheon humankind has created, great use in the process of ritual and tradition, but I also see the inherent danger if we accept any one of these as the “Abusolute Truth.”
Faith requires no definition; only human minds require it. But if we can stop arguing long enough to open ourselves to the possibility that sometimes 2+2 might actually equal five, we can glimpse the limitless.
Thank you again for opening the door to conversation.
Eloa Snowe´s last [type] ..Truth- Beauty- Freedom & Love
This is so beautiful, Eloa. I love that you were kicked out of Sunday School – not because it happened, but because of what it says about you. And I love that it seemed as though everyone else was insane. What perspective, wisdom, and deep-knowing you had/have.
And yes, there is beauty, meaning, and purpose to ritual and tradition, no matter our tradition. These are the things I love to discover and redeem…without the accompanying baggage that has often made those things oppressive and/or confusing.
I’m with you: no more arguing; rather, being open to the possibilities and not only glimpsing but stepping right into the “limitless.”
Again, thank you.
I think the worse thing we do to the world and ourselves is trying to define Godde and put her into all of these little, itty-bitty boxes, so that we can control her. The older I get the more I get that Godde being sovereign means she can do anything she wants, and it doesn’t matter what I or anyone else thinks about it. The older I get, the more I believe in the mystery of Godde and let that mystery be.
Shawna R. B. Atteberry´s last [type] ..Why Godde
So, so with you on all of this, Shawna. Thanks for expressing your experience and perspective. Beautiful. Wise. Open-handed/hearted.
God. A word I avoid as much as possible. Yet something/someone I feel with me very often.
In another thread, on another blog I heard the word the Infinite. This works for me. None of us truly understands something infinite, yet we have an idea of what it means. And I know when I’m lost in the gentle folds and curves of hue held in the miracle of flower in dappled sunlight, it’s there. It gets inside me, slows down time, opens my eyes, brings peace, breath, joy and I am in Awe.
This beauty is what feeds me. And I feel closer to something Divine in these moments than almost any other time.
Words aren’t sufficient to describe this. She is. He is. Around us. In each other. In us.
With all of the malignancy we have attached to it, God is an insulting word. the Infinite has a nice ring to it.
Hugs and butterflies,
~Teresa~
PicsieChick´s last [type] ..Rejoin the fragments- held together with breath
I so agree with you, Teresa, and am deeply grateful for not only your insight, perspective, and experience but always, always, the beauty. Thank you.
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