Ch. 6 The God Statement (continued)
GOD-centric
Since my original God statement was written over fifteen years ago, I composed a second draft which focuses more closely on what I mean by GOD-centric using categories commonly employed when describing the world religions.
Qualities of God
The Force of Love is the God of the GOD-centric. A Force is closer to a Ground or Energy of Being than a Being but we are limited by our humanity and therefore may sometimes use the language of being when referring to God. In classical language, God is omnibenevolent and omnipresent but not omnipotent or omniscient since God chose to forgo unlimited power and foreknowledge to give us truly free will to express God's love in the world. God is eternal, only our understanding of God evolves. We realize God rather than create or co-create God. For most of us, God remains a mystery towards which we continually strive but whom we recognize in love, goodness, and fairness. God loves all of us equally and invites all of us to share in and incarnate God's love in creation.
The Natural World
The interdependent web of the natural world is an important means by which we come to better understand God and the venue in which we live out God's love. Improved scientific understanding of the world is important to our improved understanding of God. To better understand creation is to better understand the Source or Ground or Energy of creation. We are invited to live out God's love in relation to creation as well as to each other.
Human Nature / Social Nature
Human nature is essentially good created for the purpose of better understanding and living out God. Human beings have free will and are responsible for their choices including the quality of being they develop and express in interactions with each other. We are called to express God's love actively by building just and loving community locally, nationally, and internationally.
Revelation through Texts & Prophets
God's love is available to all of us equally and therefore God does not make special revelations that would not be equally accessible to all of humanity in all times and locations. Even though God does not author or dictate specific books or speeches, God's love is relational to us and among us so we should read and listen and dialogue to help each other better understand and express God's love.
Faith, Doubt & Commitment
Faith is not measured by how fervently certain propositional belief statements are held to be true; instead, faith is choosing to commit to living life through the more vivid light of love, goodness, and fairness. Faith in God is not even required; however, making a commitment of hope to the Force of Love may facilitate our living out God's love which is required. The life of faith is transformative, not transactional. A static statement of belief is not faith. Faith is the ongoing willingness to grow towards God. The life of faith involves the passionate asking of the meaning of existence. God values our questioning, engagement with doubt, use of reason, and pursuit of truth. We are responsible for thinking thoughts whole and stretching our boundaries of love wider and wider hoping to reach a more complete love of God whether named or unnamed.
Spiritual Practices & Disciplines
The most essential GOD-centric practice is the living out of God's love in all creation, not just your designated corner of creation. The GOD-centric person is called to love people outside their family, social group, and comfort zone. The GOD-centric person is also called to act with compassion for non-human life and the environment. Many spiritual disciplines may support the individual GOD-centric person's practice of living out God's love. These disciplines will likely vary based on the temperament, religious tradition, and culture of the individual GOD-centric. For me, my Roman Catholic heritage provides many supports to my commitment to living out God's love. I try to remain spiritually centered by returning to the source habitually in times of need and by integrating reminders into my daily life. I pray an abridged version of the canonical hours four times a day and end many days with an Ignatian Examen. I appreciate life with a sacramental awareness of creation's invitations to vitality, joy, and love. I use meditation or contemplative prayer to calm my mind and open me up to receiving an experience of the Force of Love which fills my reserves giving me the strength to move more creatively and lovingly amid life's challenges. I pray with my feet by using the mind, body, and spirit that God gave me to do my best to live out God's love in my interpersonal relationships and commitment to social justice. I try to respond to truth with love and interpret truth through the more vivid light of love. I hold myself responsible for choosing what I attend to and how I respond. I believe that I am constantly defining myself as I participate in society and answer to God. I try to perform my small part with love, graciousness, and humor. I repeatedly ask and answer: “What is the movement of love in my life?”
While spiritual disciplines may center and strengthen us, the GOD-centric life is about transformation. If we are not engaging the vital questions of life and if we are not growing in our capacity to love and expressing that love externally, then we have retreated from God and we are invited to re-engage. The GOD-centric life is rewarding and challenging. You are called to act transformatively by expressing God's love personally, socially, and globally. Since God loves us equally, if you are Christian you are called to recognize that God loves Muslims just as much as you. If you are Muslim, you are called to recognize that God loves Jews just as much as you. Whoever you are, you are called to actively love “the other” just as God loves with wide open arms.
Evil & Suffering
Moral evil and suffering stem from too small a circle of love. Sociopaths love only themselves. Some of us love only our family and friends. Many of us love only our social class, religious group, or fellow countrymen. People outside our circle of love become the “other” to whom we ascribe less dignity, less concern, less love. To be GOD-centric, we must continually stretch our loving arms trying to live out the Force of Love among all creation as best we can. Natural evil and suffering help us to grow in love, compassion, and self-sacrifice as our interdependency invites disparate groups to come together to face a shared challenge breaking down the barriers of “other.” Individually, overcoming obstacles builds character and strengthens us for further challenges ahead. God's justice is measured in spiritual rather than material terms.
Sin, Salvation & Afterlife
Sin is not moving toward God, not growing in love, not expressing love more widely, not asking the passionate questions of existence, not being transformed by the Force of Love. To become stagnant is a sin of omission since you are omitting the vitality of life expressed through transformative love. To move away from God's call to love is a sin of commission as you are actively alienating yourself from the Force of Love. The tool of discernment for whether or not we are heading in the right direction is the movement of love in our life. Are you transforming into a more loving person? A person concerned with others in ever widening circles? Are you shedding your self-centeredness? If not, God's invitation remains open. Our salvation comes in the convergent moments when we touch God's love and experience its intensity, quality, and depth and recognize God's glory in the people and creation that surround us. To be GOD-centric is to not be concerned with an afterlife. If it comes, it comes but the GOD-centric person loves and lives out God for the pure love of God rather than the self-interested pursuit of a heaven or avoidance of a hell. In those moments when we touch God's love, we touch and participate in God's eternity.
