Lately I've been thinking what an interesting thing it is to hear people talk about "finding God" or "getting closer to God" as if spiritual enlightenment is something that must be chased after like some hidden treasure.
For me, God used to be confined to a few things: the Bible, Sunday worship services, times spent in prayer, times of worship in song.
These days, when I think of God, which I confess are further and farther between now, I think of God (or the Divine, or Spirit) as being in each moment, and everywhere around me. I can no more successfully find God than I can successfully find air. If I were a fish, I would not have to search for water, because it would encompass me.
To me, each and everyone and each and every thing is encompassed in God. I see God in times spent in nature on trails. I see God in the love that people have for their family members as they gather around their hospital beds. I see God in the beauty of other people and in intimate times spent with a significant other. I see God in the snowflakes as they gently fall.
I am not a pantheist; I don't believe that everything is God. Rather, I am what the late author Marcus Borg termed a panentheist - that is, everything is in God.
Going further, during my time in a religious movement called Unity, I learned that everything and everyone on this earth is connected, or one with God. Today I can say that I believe that I am an expression, or an extension of God in the world. Some believe that God makes herself known only in a specific person, such as Jesus, or Muhammed, or the Buddha. I, however, believe that God is in the face of everyone I might come across during the day.
The bank teller, the transit driver, the barista, the mailperson. Female, male, trans, gay, straight. The poor, the wealthy. If I look close enough, I can see that God is in everyone and everyone is in God.
I leave you with a simple, beautiful poem by Denise Levertov.
the avowal
As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.
