If I believe in God, it isn't surprising that I see him everywhere. He is part of the heat radiating from that sun, he is part of the passion in Justin Vernon's voice as skinny love fills my ears. He is part of the feeling I get when I see my girlfriend approaching in the distance. He is part of my longing to see Christians who are more intellectually engaging; he is part of the 800paged philosophy book I'm reading. He is part of that guy sitting and reading, of the beauty of the sky.
This is not some kind of crazy pantheism; where God is reduced to just the things we see, but it is my belief that God created all things, that he is part of all things, that he is making all things new. Every glimpse of beauty, every passion, every joy, every sorrow. He sees, he knows, he made it. I refuse to be cynical about the phrase "everything is spiritual"- despite what the world tells me. I refuse to believe love is a releasing of endorphins, that passion is a brain state, that music is just a collection of notes.
I refuse to put God in the box that everyone does. The one labelled 'for church' 'for prayer time' 'for that godly conversation'. Because if God is here he's not a distant force who created and left. He built his house & moved in.
God's voice is in the cool breeze on my neck, in the intricacy of that leaf, in the joy of relationships.
He spoke the world into being. His word brought life to the stars, and to the earth- and I don't see why I should believe that his voice ceased. If there is still life, then he is still speaking. His word creates, his word sustains and he speaks to all of us, all the time.
Panentheism, seeing God as present in every created thing, (as opposed to pantheism, seeing every created thing as God) has been a big part of jewish and christian spirituality for a long time, but somehow seems to get left out of a lot of western protestant thinking. It's time we rediscovered it!
ReplyDeleteJustin Beiber. Evidence God doesn't care.
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