Gosh! It’s been nearly 3 weeks since I posted last. I feel bad about that, in a way, but not really. My blog serves as an outlet for ME to write when I feel the need to, or when I feel led to. The day it becomes a burden is the day I close it down.
I embarked, over a month ago, on a rather strenuous journey here to define my understanding of God. In my efforts, I forgot a simple fact that we as humans can never know the ultimate truth of who and what God is.
That said, I can express my understanding of who God is to me at this point in time; I can attempt however poorly to express the reality of God in my life as I experience God today. My journey thus far has taught me that this expression of God today will surely change by tomorrow.
Recently, I was part of a conversation that discussed why we should never turn someone away. In my rather limited ability to fully express myself clearly – or perhaps more truthfully, in my tendency to over simplify what I’m trying to say – I said “Because when we turn someone away, we turn away Jesus.” It was pointed out to me that I was by that statement forcing Jesus into the role of cosmic policeman.
So, on my drive today (fully 3 weeks after said conversation) I was meditating on what I truly meant.
In 1 Corinthians 3:16 (The Message) Paul says to us “You realize, don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you?”
Each of us, whether the vilest criminal and sinner or the most pious of holy persons, is the temple of God; and in our temple is what I have come to call a “God-spark”.
Some of us never encounter this spark within ourselves. Others commune with it daily. Our quest in life, ultimately, is to seek down into ourselves and encounter this God-spark, even merge our spirits into it.
When we engage in this quest, each encounter with another person enables the sparks within each individual to glow brighter. The more we open our hearts to others, the more we kindle our God-spark.
First, the mild glow spreads then blossoms into a gentle, lightly flickering flame as of a small candle in a darkened room. With each encounter, with each subsequent growth of our circle of association, that flame continues to grow.
God more fully exposes to us the reality of God’s presence within each of us. At times, our God-sparks can dwindle back to a little spark, at others when we encounter each other in worship, a conflagration occurs. God’s presence in each coalesces into God’s presence to all. Profound experiences of God’s presence in and to the world are felt, I believe, when the God-spark in us explodes into a wildfire.
When I turn away, or fail to welcome, a stranger, I am turning away not only that individual, not only Jesus, but another God-spark, another opportunity to meet God and to ignite in the world the wildfire of God’s love. I diminish myself as well as the other.
This is what exclusion does to our world. Exclusion on a social or cultural scale deepens the darkness of spiritual night that surrounds us all, threatening to encroach and snuff us out. We as a society needs to, must learn that exclusion is not protection but ultimately our downfall. When society learns to welcome and embrace the diversity of experience around us, the wildfire of God’s love can burn so fiercely as to deprive the dark of it’s power. Imagine, a world awash in a flame so bright that the very night is banished.
Call it God’s love, or Allah’s love, or call it what you will, my vision can not override yours, and my truth of the Divine Other is not yours. But that Divine Other, in all it’s many facets and manifestations is true for all. When that Divine Other is aflame in this world, oh what a world that would be!
On The Road II 