One of the ongoing conversations we are likely to have with ourselves, centers around the subject of “who we are.” I’ll jump right in declaring that, in the esoteric, literal, and practical sense, we are expressions of God. Reading such a statement might prompt a reader to automatically tag me, or this commentary as religious. But while religion is not excluded, it is definitely optional here, and does not shape or influence my choice of words. I’ll reiterate, we are all expressions of God.
“Expressions of God doing, or being what?” is the question.
It’s easy to get an “amen” when someone talks about God’s being the Creator of all, and knowing all, being everywhere, and all-powerful, but I can hear the silence when one has the timerity to say that all are expressions of God. A few of us might even be confident, or more appropriately, feel that we are good enough to accept the notion that we are expressions of God, but what about them? THEY can’t be!
I beg to differ.
Radical Christians want to kill radical Muslims first, because they fear the radical Muslims are trying to eradicate them. Radical Jews want to eradicate radical Palestinians and other radical Muslims they believe are trying to eradicate them. Each believes that the others are evil. Each is doing great harm to the other in the name of God (or Allah), and love for, and loyalty to their own self-preservation.
That’s what they’re telling themselves and that’s what they’re believing. How can actions and behaviors such as these be expressions of God? In reply, my question is, “how can they not?”
If God is the Creator of All, and loves All, then what part of All is left out, and if so, why? If the highest love is agapé, or unconditional, and God is the Highest Expression of Beingness, then what part of humanity, or its behavior, would God not yet love? If God is the “Alpha” and “Omega,” then how could God not also be a Divine Noun and Verb?
Even Satan, if such a one exists, would have to be a creation and expression of God, otherwise it could not live; it could not be.
But these are abstractions. Let’s deal with the only true reality; you and me. The true question is, “Do you believe that you are an expression of God?”
Literally, do you believe that you are God being “you”. Do you believe that you created your experience, and brought into your life all of those, to positive and negative effect, who have touched it? Do you believe that you, an expression and embodiment of God in physical form, are responsible for all the negative effects that you have left in your wake, and that you likewise responsible for the positive?
I’d be willing to bet that for most of you, the answer would be “no.” And that is where, and why we tend to keep putting ourselves in “sticky” circumstances because we don’t appreciate, first of all, our natural, ever-present, and always on oneness and likeness with the Souce. Yes, oneness and likeness with God.
In the same way we take in oxygen with each breath in order to live, whether we know it, believe it, or not, we take in God in thought and energy in order to live and be, whether we know it, believe it, or not.
People who are labeled “sinners” by some God fearing organizations are no less connected to God than those who want others to join them in worship or fear. People who engage in, heinous behaviors against other people, are still expressions of God. They are still manifestations and embodiments of God in physical form. Egomaniacs, psychopaths, bigots, zealots, and sociopaths, are still expressions and embodiments of God.
This piece of news may be shocking for some, because if it is true, it may seem that God actually wants the poverty, excess, greed, indifference, apathy, disease, and evil that we see, and are sometimes victims of, to happen. Otherwise, why would it?
Maybe God wants the ozone layer to continue thinning, warming the planet and prompting polar icecaps to melt, raising the level of the oceans, and rewriting coastlines around the world to affect millions of people. May God wants a meteor, comet, or asteroid to collide with the Earth, causing a shift on its axis, making the threat of a nuclear winter look more like a midwestern spring.
But maybe, just maybe, God doesn’t want anything. If God is All, then how could God “want” anything? If God knows all and is everywhere, then how could God be unaware, or not present, with us, right here, and right now? And wouldn’t the most practical, efficienty way for God to be with us, right here and right now, be as us?
Yet, it is possible for us to be unaware, or simply deny it if oneness with God doesn’t fit our concept of reality. How could we maintain our anger or hatred? How could we stay bigoted, or believe we are powerless and victims of circumtance? If we embrace the God within us, look at the stories we’d have to give up. Maybe so, but I’d invite you to consider the new stories that you would empower yourself to tell. Stories about the hurdles you will have gained the strength and fortitude to overcome, and how your former enemies and challenges became the blessings they were all along, by helping, exciting, or even igniting you to excel. That certainly sounds to me like something God would do.
The choice and freedom
to excel or not,
still rests with you and me.
It’s a dance
we all engage in
for all eternity.
I know that it doesn’t seem like God is present to some people, many of whom are looking very hard for a sign. But, they’re looking for God in all the wrong places; for they refuse to accept that God is within themselves. And, if we will not see God within, we have no chance to see God in others, especially those who are behaving in ways that we would not behave, or we have judged is “wrong”.
Once we accept God’s presence within ourselves, the next step is seeing God within All. All people, all creatures, all objects, even the void of space is filled with God. Scientists have now postulated that the vast majority of the universe consists of what they are terming, “Dark Matter,” which, though it cannot be seen, is estimated to make up, along with “Dark Energy,” 96% of the total energy density of the universe. We know something much bigger than our ability to scientifically detect exists and is serving a purpose in sustaining the universe itself. So it too is in God, and God too, is it.
There is a benefit to the suggestions I’m making, beginning with our relationship to ourself. Those who perceive the world in terms of “friends” and “enemies,” will find no greater enemy than self. People certainly come into their lives that reinforce the idea that they are not safe, or that they can be harmed. However, scenarios such as these are chosen by us all before birth into this world to help us overcome the real nemesis that we will encounter, ignorance, and reveal the true power of who we are, love. Love is both the way, and the power available to all to overcome any “obstacle.” Yet, without the obstacles to transform and transcend life wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.
Some people want God to take away their illness or pain, put money in the bank, and help them get the girl or guy, but they don’t yet recognize that they created their situations and circumstances for a reason, and that the power to do all those things rests within them. As expressions and embodiments of God, each has the same power and ability. That is the beauty of acknowledging our oneness, not only with God, but with each other. And, as we begin practicing… individual and social harmony, trust, faith and positive determination, we’ll discover that intuition and inspiration will increase, as will our passion for life. We’ll discover that the “problems” that so occupied our minds, that we just knew would affect us negatively, have lost their luster. A grander vision now fuels our passion for life and living.
Let us all say “amen” to that.
