This is as God as it Gets
Lyman Reed
June 13th, 2006
Uncategorized
My ideas about God have changed quite a bit over the years. I used to think of Him (yup, it was a Him) as a benevolent dictator, looking down at us, snapping his fingers when he felt like changing something, rewarding those he thought of us good, and punishing those he thought of as evil. If it served his purpose, he would allow evil to continue, but he’d get those bad guys after they died… unless, of course, they were smart enough to trick him by picking the right prayer to pray just before they kicked the bucket.
I find it more and more difficult to put my present ideas about God into words. I think it’s because God itself is beyond description. It isn’t person, place, or thing. It just is. It’s all of those things that we can’t explain by other means. And it’s all of the things that we have explained. And yes, I prefer It to Him or Her. It’s personal, but without personality, except for the personality that I give it at times.
There was a practitioner at the Religious Science church that I was a member of in Illinois who would say “This is as God as it gets.” Because everything, absolutely everything, is made of God. When Jesus said that he was the Son of God, he was right. When he said he was the Son of Man, he was right. Humankind is the Son of God. Just like a man is made of the same stuff as his father, we are made of the same stuff as God. My favorite analogy of it is that I am to God as a drop of water is to the ocean. Both made of the same stuff, but the drop of water isn’t the ocean.
This morning I’m seeing just how much I’ve lost consciousness of, and contact with, the great I AM. In the hurry and worry of everyday life (which is, of course, also God), I forget that I am a part of a greater whole.
I used to take ideas like being a part of a greater whole, and think that it meant I was worthless. But that’s only because I would see things that weren’t the best, A #1, the biggest, the brightest, and judge them as worthless. “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” I judged, and was judged myself.
But without all of the parts, there would be no whole.
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Just wondering: When you refer to God as “it” (I agree that “he” doesn’t tell the whole story), do you mean “neuter” like an object or thing, or are you using that as a way of dealing with the dact that we have no pronoun that, except traditionaly, covers both genders. It sure gets awkward reusing the noun every time, the “he/she” or the “s/he” can be a nuisance and anyway no human language can fully describe God. (I think you just said that.
Anyway because I’m old (I’ve been revbetsy for 40 years now) I generally opt for “he” because of traditional grammar, knowing in my heart it’s inadequate.
Great post.
revbetsy
Sorry, I must have missed the second paragraph.
Okay!
Jan 9th, 2008 at 10:20 am
[...] The video also reminded me of something else… that This is as God as it Gets. [...]