Why Do I Believe I Am Connected With God or Spirit?
BY ARLENE F. HARDER, MA, MFT
We'll never answer to everyone's satisfaction the age-old questions of whether there is a God who is responsible for the universe and whether He-She-It is interested in our individual lives on this planet in the middle of an uncomprehendably vast universe. There are those who say "No," the universe and life is a random event that just happened; God is a figment of our mind's imaginations. Men and women are on their own. No guidance comes from supernatural forces. And there are those who not only answer "yes" to those questions, they are also sure they know when the universe began, what God demands of His (they're certain God must be masculine) creations, how everyone must live, and why anyone who doesn't agree with them is wrong..
Then there are those, like myself, who believe God and Spirit are real, although we don't pretend to understand how such a superior being (if, in fact, God or Spirt can be said to be a "being") designed a complex universe, nor how and why He-She-It would continue to operate in our individual lives. We believe God is a concept that is beyond conceptualization and therefore it's presumptuous to put God in a box and will not claim our version is "The" truth.
As you can see, our ideas about God do not come from what others tell us is true—although there is much wisdom in the teachings of others that may guide our understanding—but from conclusions arrived at through our own experience. These conclusions are the result of a long, slow, puzzling journey with many twists and turns. The best we can do when talking about "God" or "Spirit" and what that means to us is to describe, as clearly as we can, how our beliefs arise from our experiences.
One of the experiences that frequently supports the feeling that I am touched by Spirit occurs during times of meditation and quiet reflection when I become aware of images that arise from deep somewhere within my soul or, so it often seems, from somewhere outside of myself. In a piece I've written specifically for Support4Change, I use these changing images to help you understand why I conclude that my thoughts, in the form of images, appear guided by a higher consciousness than mine.
© 2002 Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT |
