I’ve personally chosen to hang onto the word “God,” but only because I’ve redefined it for myself--from a noun to a verb. You may end up somewhere different in the end.
Yes! Totally agree. I still use God, but I do not use he and usually say Spirit of Love. Like you, I spent many years thinking of God as the super-human, old man sitting on a throne up in the sky somewhere. So glad that I have come to see that God is neither male nor female, but is the great Spirit of Love who dwells within and among us every day.
God is love in motion. Compassion in action, wow! I believed this before, but once again you have helped me find language for what I often only "know" deep down. Thank you.
I like the idea that God is both noun and a verb for me. I think that also helps me with the self imposed shame I've held onto for not 'evangelizing enough'. I don't need to share God the person with others as long as I'm still doing my best to share God the verb with others, while also extending grace to myself when I feel like I haven't represented him well as either noun or verb.
If you accept that a thing cannot cause its own existence, then God is a metaphysical necessity. That God is being itself is necessarily true. The anthropomorphic God of much of Christian teaching is imaginary.
I agree with you Robert. The existence of the universe and the ridiculous unlikeliness of our existence on this planet for me provides enough evidence of a cosmic change agent. Agency implies action, and love is the best action of all.
And then, of course, “God” is so far beyond all of our collective comprehensions and abilities to define or re-define . . . but “God” has also been revealed as “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit.”
There was a time when I believed that I am god and so are you and so is everyone. It was a vain and impotent belief, but I believed it even though all it did was give me permission to do whatever the hell I thought that I wanted to do, but even that I wasn’t very successful at doing.
Then one summer almost fifty years ago, I encountered the guy who they crucified as “King of the Jews” who I now call “my Lord” and, even, “my God.”
Yes! Totally agree. I still use God, but I do not use he and usually say Spirit of Love. Like you, I spent many years thinking of God as the super-human, old man sitting on a throne up in the sky somewhere. So glad that I have come to see that God is neither male nor female, but is the great Spirit of Love who dwells within and among us every day.
:)
God is love in motion. Compassion in action, wow! I believed this before, but once again you have helped me find language for what I often only "know" deep down. Thank you.
❤️
This is so freeing!
It reminds me of Process Theology or Open and Relational Theology, but those don’t have a “freeing” effect 🤔.
I like the idea that God is both noun and a verb for me. I think that also helps me with the self imposed shame I've held onto for not 'evangelizing enough'. I don't need to share God the person with others as long as I'm still doing my best to share God the verb with others, while also extending grace to myself when I feel like I haven't represented him well as either noun or verb.
I really like your writing. Please keep doing it.
Thank you!
Throwing into the mix Octavia Butler's book *Parable of the Sower*.... That has given me plenty to think about.
If you accept that a thing cannot cause its own existence, then God is a metaphysical necessity. That God is being itself is necessarily true. The anthropomorphic God of much of Christian teaching is imaginary.
I agree with you Robert. The existence of the universe and the ridiculous unlikeliness of our existence on this planet for me provides enough evidence of a cosmic change agent. Agency implies action, and love is the best action of all.
BTW, there's an excellent book by a Jewish mystic, Rabbi David Cooper, called "God Is A Verb."
And then, of course, “God” is so far beyond all of our collective comprehensions and abilities to define or re-define . . . but “God” has also been revealed as “Father,” “Son,” and “Holy Spirit.”
There was a time when I believed that I am god and so are you and so is everyone. It was a vain and impotent belief, but I believed it even though all it did was give me permission to do whatever the hell I thought that I wanted to do, but even that I wasn’t very successful at doing.
Then one summer almost fifty years ago, I encountered the guy who they crucified as “King of the Jews” who I now call “my Lord” and, even, “my God.”
I wonder if you know Him?
https://youtu.be/yzqTFNfeDnE?feature=shared
Process theology which grows out of Einstein's theory of relativity sees God as an invitation, definitely not as unchangeable or other. I like this.