This I Believe....

There is a wonderful radio show on NPR call "This I Believe".  Different speakers share a significant belief that is foundational for their lives.  The Rowan Public Library has some of the "Best of the Show" on Audio CD for check out.  I was driving my car listening to each of these very normal people declare their beliefs and decided that I would take the challenge.  What is the core of what I believe about God?  So here goes......

I believe in the mystery and wonder of God, the Nurturing Creative Force of all that is.  I believe that I am a part of this Wondrous Entity just as a drop of water is part of the ocean or a molecule of hydrogen is part of the universe.  Therefore saying that we are one in the body of Christ is not just a metaphor to me, but an actuality.  I believe that sin is anything that separates us from this knowing and thereby creates disharmony in the whole.  Just as a virus causes havoc in our body so can the virus of sin cause havoc in the Body of the Universal I Am.

I believe that the “cure” for this virus is at all times available and that by opening myself to the cure of love I am helping to create harmony in the body as a whole.  Peace within is indeed peace for the whole.

I believe that my separation from God is illusion.  If God is indeed omnipresent then she is infused in every atom, every quantum particle of my being.  Indeed God is within me, within the dandelion, the shell, the ocean, the birds, my neighbor and my enemy.  Indeed when I do something for "the least of these", I am doing it not just for God but for my neighbor, my lover, the person imprisoned in Guantanamo, the child in Guatemala, for the rocks, the sand, the trees and the mountains.  We are all a part of this Wondrous Cosmos, this Universal Force, this Unnamable Mystery.  What I do here in the little community of China Grove does indeed impact the world.

Indeed, I can plug into the Source of all that is, commune with the Mystery, raise my awareness and understanding of the Divine, but what little I learn, what little I know and understand will continue to point to the absolute incomprehensible greatness, majesty , wonder and love that is beyond all that I can even imagine.  I can never through my own understanding grasp the nature of God, but only know her through human metaphor and human limitations.

My limited understanding leads me to believe that God is merciful in ways that I will never understand.  I believe that God’s justice is about full reconciliation of all creation not about condemnation because in my limited awareness, in my humanity I have in my ignorance not been able to comprehend the vastness of her love for all.  God does not make mistakes. Life has been created in vast diversity which I am called to celebrate rather than condemn. Eternal life is a restorative process that has already begun not a threat for future punishment or a reward for good behavior.  God is love and all that God does is for the restoration of all; that thru grace, all of God’s creation can know and experience the fullness of God’s love.

So knowing this, how do I respond, how do I live?  What am I called to do in response to this Love?  Indeed God’s work is in my hands.  Keeping my ego out of the equation is vital to my open experience of God.  I am who I am through no credit of my own will or design. God has provided me with certain skills and abilities and has provided me with exactly what I need to bring to the opportunities before me.  I pray that I can release the desires and needs of the ego and stand as a child of the Mystery, a bearer of the Light, a sharer of God’s love wherever I am called to do so.

What do you believe?  What is at the core of your understanding of the nature of God and the universe?  Take the challenge to go beyond the creeds and dogma that you grew up with and dig a little deeper into what you believe about God at the core of your being.  Take the challenge!

Awaken!

Over the past several years I have felt myself become very restless to the point of resistant to the rather limited words that so often we use to describe the Great Mystery that is God.  While I do believe that The Holy Trinity is a very useful metaphor for that which is beyond our comprehension, I do not believe it is the only true way to refer to the Great I Am.  The feminine aspects of the nature of God, the nurturing creativity giving birth to the world, gives us another glimpse at the wonder of God.  Using feminine language for God is not contrary to what we read in the Bible.  Indeed the Hebrew word Ruah which starts my poem below is the word used to refer to the Spirit of God many times in the Bible.  The name Sophia is also used to refer to the wisdom of God.  Even the use of the word Goddess, then is not a pagan image, but just another image to illustrate another dimension of the unfathomable mystery that is the Creator and Sustainer of All.  I pray that even if the masculine Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the images of God that you are most comfortable with, that you may also be able to appreciate the feminine nature of God and will be blessed by the poem below. 
May the Spirit of God, Ruah, be with you as you walk your journey.

Awaken

Ruah, Spirit, your breath ripples the waters of my soul

Visions of your movement through the Mother Tree

Awaken my eyes to your presence.

The rustle of the Sacred Grove saying

“Awake,  Awake,  Awake!”

“The Spirit of Sophia is stirring the foundation of your life.”

With the cool taste of the breeze upon my lips,

My heart yearns for the closeness of your presence.

Fragrances sweet and earthy from the bowers of Mother Earth, cry out,

“Pluck me from the hidden garden”

“Revel in the aroma of the Goddess alive in the world”

I am awake!  I can see, hear, taste, smell and touch the creation of the Goddess.

Within each flower, each stream, each tree, each creature, each person I encounter,

The Spirit of Sophia is present, alive!

Aaah, even in the inner secret places of my soul

The spark of the Spirit is glowing, alive

Ready to burst forth in song!

Karen Campbell, May 1, 2011

Dance of the Migrating Birds

What glorious choreography as I glance into the sky to witness a flock of migrating birds in flight, moving as one, swooping, clustering, spreading, turning with a synchronicity that bears the touch of God.  It is often nature that shows us in such profound ways what we need to know about our lives and our connection with the Divine.

Life is not some random flapping about, but is choreographed just like the dance of migrating birds.  They never take a straight route to their destination, but instead seem to glory in the flight, a ballet of cooperation and delight, following a very winding flight pattern but always with "South" in mind.

My spiritual journey has swooped this way, turned and gone that way, circled back to this understanding and then taken a graceful arch a different way, but always seeking my "South,"  my ever growing ever changing realization of the Divine and of humankind's search for a closer connection and fuller understanding of our Source.

What lessons are there for me to see?  Which way will my dance of migration to my Divine Source take me today?  I think I will just open my eyes and experience the glory of the flight!