God Who?
Short thoughts on the big man up top
Happy Friday y’all - After a busy week with a half dozen friends descending on my island paradise, I finally had some time to sit down and put some words on paper.
With the holidays coming up, I’ve been thinking about how it’s a season that’s deeply rooted in religion - something that often gets lost amongst all the traditions, presents, and celebrations we have at the end of our arbitrary calendar year.
This is a subject that’s hilariously difficult to even begin to delve into with any depth in just one short newsletter, but it’s been on my mind so here you go.
Who’s God?
Weekly Wonderings and Wisdom
Funny enough, as a young kid growing up going to Sunday school, this felt like an easy question to answer - He’s the big, bearded man in the clouds who created everyone and everything, who continues to rule over us all, and when we get realllly old we get to go hang out with in something that sounds like an old person daycare, but everyone has wings.
This conception is quite easy to grasp and has become the commonly held form He takes for much of the Western world. However, this image is more a reflection of our limitations than the nature of the divine. We tend to anthropomorphize in order to make sense of what we don't understand; we read holy books and attribute those characteristics to a mental image that makes sense to us, whether it’s a Monty Python-like figurehead or some other form representing omniscience, omnipotence, benevolence, etc.
This makes an inherently difficult to grasp concept more comprehensible, yet it falls short of really painting a picture of the idea that has brought meaning to so many spiritual leaders, mystics, and followers. For those who are connected, they recognize that God is infinite and therefore cannot be made into something by our finite use of words.
The Tao that can be described is not the Tao
The more you try to bucket such a concept into a known form the further you get from its true nature.
As you're able to break free of the comfort found in convenient symbols and stories - you find something ineffable, whose sheer incomprehensibility puts you in awe of the universe and your place in it. From here, you can embrace the mystery, paving a path toward understanding the essence of existence itself in a way that is both deeply personal and universally shared.
So, whether you find God in moments of peaceful silence in nature, devoted prayer, or deep contemplation of your place in the cosmos; or if this word or idea of God doesn’t resonate and you reject it altogether but still feel there is some force out there beyond our comprehension, this pursuit of understanding this force creates an enduring opportunity to humble yourself before something greater, diminish the gravity of seemingly large problems, and ultimately ascribe meaning to our short time here on this earth.
What’d you think?
Heavy subject for 500 words on a Friday, I know. But if you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear from you as my thinking here is continually evolving and probably warrants a much longer piece in the future.