God of Our Understanding

God Responds to many names.
She Resides in many places.
He Inspires in many ways.
God is Compassion.

God responds to many names, though not limited by any. We assign names to God as our way of understanding the Creator, Father, Zeus, Jehovah, Savior, Vishnu, Allah, Great Spirit, Jesus, and many, many more that we have invoked over time, culture, religion, tradition, and geography. We use a name for God to pray, beseech, thank, mourn, and to discuss God with others. Some religions discourage the use of God's “name” out of reverence or concern for misuse or “blasphemy”, and instead refer to God indirectly, for example, YHWH. Perhaps, that is wise as a way to avoid the presumption that our name for God is inspired, true, exclusive, more “informed”, or “advanced” than others. To insist that we know the proper “name” of God, especially at the exclusion of other people and the rest of God's Creation, is to diminish God altogether.

God resides in all things, yet we sometimes use specific places to pray, to communicate, and to be calm and enjoy the presence of God. We go to temples, synagogues, mosques, churches, cathedrals, mountain tops, gardens, water, or other sacred sites as places where we can more readily quiet our distractions and be in touch with God. God is found in all of these sacred places, especially in ourselves, each other, and in nature. To argue that one site is more sacred than another, especially at the exclusion of other people and the rest of Her Creation, is to lose God altogether.

God inspires in many ways through scriptures, dreams, visions, apparitions, divine guidance, miracles, and the universe. He inspires through prophets, priests, rabbis, clerics, clergy, ministers, shamans, parents, friends, strangers, children, and many others. He inspires through art, music, dance, writing, and the craft and labor of many. God inspires through creation, he enlightens each of us in many different ways. To insist that there is only one source of inspiration, given to a chosen few, fixed in time and interpretation, especially at the exclusion of other people and the rest of His Creation, is to silence God altogether.

God created us in Her Image and Likeness, not ours. Love God and all of His Creation. Love yourself, love one another, and be compassionate to all living things.


God Responds to many names.
She Resides in many places.
He Inspires in many ways.
God is Compassion.
YHWH

Geoff
Thanksgiving, 2011