I think it's pretty natural for people to want to believe that there's some benevolent Being or Force out/up there watching and looking out for us. This life is hard, with tragedy lurking right around the corner, with so much out of our control. Then there's the fact that we're all eventually going to die; our human lives are finite. That sort of unknown can be scary. So people invent gods that assuage some of that hardship and uncertainty. And these gods, we surmise, must be greater than we are, so we create rituals and songs and prayers to worship them. Often worship takes place in the unspoken hope that if we pay enough homage, these gods will shine favour down on us. It's been this way for thousands of years.
I get it. It's scary to think we are all alone when we have to face things like illness or poverty or war or heartache. But from my little vantage point, that's where we need to - instead of looking up - look both outward to our fellow humans, and look within for strength which often goes untapped like a dusty beer keg in a long-forgotten brewery. How many wars and conflicts have been fought because we've forgotten our shared humanity and fragility, and instead have insisted on shouting "My god is better and bigger than your god!"
Now, I am not saying that there is not a Divine reality that exists. I just think we've created it in our image rather than the reverse. To me, this reality is best and most purely experienced wheneve we break out of our little shells and selves and choose to love, to be compassionate, to be kind. It can be experienced or found in those moments when we choose love over fear and selfishness. This reality permeates everyone and everything in existence. Instead of demanding or wishing for our worship, it wants for us to be a channel. Perhaps that's some of what saints have meant when they've written about us being the hands and feet of Christ in the world. Maybe whenever we look into the eyes of someone who thinks, believes, loves and looks different than us, we are looking at the God that we seek.
mark-andrew
