A Personality of Good
An intensely kind-full presence.
Jesus had a sense of companionship with the divine source of his being, a source that not only knew him intimately but cared for him as well.
Jesus spoke about God as Father not to perpetuate the image of a patriarchal power chain so much as to imply a birthing from, a presence of nurturing and intense watchfulness, a deep pride of creation. An immutable connection. Love.
As much as I appreciate the power we each have within ourselves to create our destinies, I cannot escape the notion that above us hovers a benevolent, all-knowing, and intensely kind-full presence … a personality of Good.
I cannot be comforted by the thought of some Vast Neutral Oversoul that regards me as merely a speck of light on a diamond-studded ocean.
As much as I desire independence and take pride in stretching my wings, I want to know that Someone is watching and cares about every move I make. I want a God who knows my middle name.
Once I wrote a poem entitled “Net” that reads:
There is a net under us all.
Sometimes we dance
and sometimes
we fall.
And
there is a net
under us all.
Jesus had this sense of life. In fact, if you looked at what drove him — especially on his darker days — it was his desire to please his Father … a desire to return to this very intense and personal embrace again.
My mother shared with me how, in a state of stress, she prayed desperately for a profound truth from the Lord.
“Do you know what I heard Him saying to me?” she asked. “'Let’s dance,’ He said. ‘Let’s dance.'”
God loves to dance.
God invites us to join the movement, the swaying, the feeling of being in harmony with something larger than ourselves. It is a rare group that can stand linked arm in arm in a circle and not begin to sway.
In his book The Lives of a Cell, author Lewis Thomas speculated that making contact with alien beings is nearer than we might think. The dilemma becomes what do we say to them? What should form our giant Hello?
Thomas decided that we should broadcast Bach, “even though it would be bragging.”
Thomas also informs us that all of earth is continually humming … that even earthworms make drumming sounds, and termites hit a staccato note that no one can find reason for even after years of observation.
Jesus heard the humming, too. He said the rocks and trees can sing — that they will do so and have been.
All of this for one simple reason: We are not alone.
LBJ ~ Live. Breathe. Joy.
Thoughts and Questions
Do you feel a Higher Power caring for you in a personal way?
If you were to give God a personal nickname, what would it be? Does this thought offend you? If so, why?
P.S. We are thirty days from the first ever Impact Writing Weekend in San Diego. I am truly grateful for those who have registered to share the February weekend in sunny Southern California, even if to evade colder temperatures and snow in the forecast. I was reading this morning that therapist StephenHayes compares the fusion of multiple spices to form one taste in a recipe to how psychotherapy works. In neuroscience pathways in the brain are described as “neurons firing together, wiring together.” Having never heard this phrasing before, I was struck by the truth of those five simple words. Sometimes what we think about ourselves as a “firing of thought” for example, actually becomes hard wired into our brain. While the purpose of this kind of learning is to save time and provide short cuts, when it comes to self identity, it can become an unnecessary and inaccurate portrayal of ourselves—in our own mind. Thus, the mere thought “I can never write a book” becomes fused into an identity of being a non-author. However, simply separating the fusing of one thought into two thoughts becomes “I have never written a book YET.” And that opens the door to a whole new universe of possibility.
Join me and other explorers in San Diego February 7-9, 2005. Use this link to register
