Lotus of the Heart > Path of Spirit > Presence of God

 
 

Just Where Is God?

Here, Everywhere, Nowhere

Jun 8, 2009

Saying For Today: God is beyond such greedy grasping, which is so prevalent in religions.


Welcome to OneLife Ministries. This site is designed to lead you prayerfully into a heart experience of Divine Presence, Who is Love. While it focuses on Christian teaching, I pray persons of varied faiths will find inspiration here. Indeed, "God" can be whatever image helps us trust in the Sacred, by whatever means Grace touches us each. Please share this ministry with others, and I hope you return soon. There is a new offering daily. And to be placed on the daily OneLife email list, to request notifications of new writings or submit prayer requests, write to barukhattah@embarqmail.com .

Blessings,
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox, MDiv, MFT, PhD

Pastor-Teacher, Author, Workshop Leader, Spiritual Counselor, Chaplain

Brian encourages support of the 4-Star Christian organization Compassion, which supports children worldwide; for more see www.compassion.com .

OPENING PRAYER

O God, The Giver of Life,
Remover of pains and sorrows,
Bestower of happiness, and
Creator of the Universe;
Thou art luminous, pure and adorable;
We meditate on Thee;.
May Thou inspire and guide
Our intellect in the right direction.

*The Gayatri Mantra. See www.worldprayers.org .

LISTENING TO SCRIPTURE

7 Where could I go to escape from you? Where could I get away from your presence? 8 If I went up to heaven, you would be there; if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.

*Psalm 139.7-8 (GNT)

RECEIVING SACRED TEACHING

I said, "Friend, where are you?"
"What did you say?" asked my Beloved.
I said, "Friend, where are you?"
"I AM," my Love laughed, "in your asking."
"Indeed," said that One, "I was in the thought
that gave birth to the asking."
"Indeed," said that One, "I was That that gave
the thought that gave birth to the asking."
Trace me back, even before, and you will see,
I am nowhere and everywhere, beginning and end,
first and last, Spring and water of everything - of you.

"This," I said, "is confusing me."
"Good," the Friend said, "mabye you'll
finally stop asking questions and fall
into these arms of mine."

*Brian K. Wilcox. "A Blessed Confusion."

He does not distribute Himself among the hearts or bodies of men in order to dwell therein, giving one part of Himself to this one, another to that one, like the sunlight shining through the doors and windows of houses. He is rather to be compared to sound, although a corporeal and passing thing, which a deaf man does not receive at all, a partly deaf one does not wholly receive, and among those who are equidistant and hear it, one receives more than another according to his keener hearing, another, less, according to his weaker hearing, and yet the sound itself does not vary from more or less, but where all are present, it is equally present to all. How much more perfect than this is God, whose nature is incorporeal and unchangeably living, who cannot be extended and distributed like sound by time intervals, who needs no airy space to exist in order to be near to those present, but who in Himself remains eternally steadfast, able to be wholly present to all and to each, although those in whom He dwells possess Him according to their diverse capacities, some more, some less, He builds up all of them by grace to His goodness as His most beloved temple (1 Cor 3:16; 6:19; 2 Cor 6:16).

*Augustine. On the Presence of God. In Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings. The Classics of Western Spirituality. Translated by Mary T. Clark.

* * *

God is no less in one person than another person. In fact, the word "in" is local, and God is not local. So, even "in" cannot mean what we mean by "in," as though God could be "out." So, "in" is a metaphor of closeness, or intimacy. "Out" is a metaphor of distance, separateness.

If a lover says to someone, "I'm never going to let you into my heart again," that cannot mean "in" as we mean "in." She speaks of a number of things clustering around the concept "in": intimacy, connection, trust, surrender, ...

Rather, God is neither "in" nor "out." God is, God is Isness, God is God-ing. So, God cannot be distributed. We cannot say, "God is more over there than over there."

Yet, if we say, "I am filled with God," we are speaking of a faith, an experience. In this sense, God as extending the sense and attributes of Presence, God is more at some places than other places.

Since God cannot be distributed, then, all of God is available to you and me at any point in place and time. God, also, being nonlocal, can be as fully manifesting to one person on one continent as to another on another continent.

Likewise, this extension of non-distribution applies to the soul. Our soul is limited by a physical dimension local in experience. Yet, the soul, under certain circumstances, or Divine grace, can connect over distance and, potentially, time, with another soul.

So, where is God? God is nowhere. This means God is everywhere. This means no person or people have any special claim on God as God is in Godself. Absolutely, we cannot say truthfully, "We have God, you don't," or "I have God, you don't."

This may be a blow to some individual or group egos. Humans have a tendency to want a special market on God. God is beyond such greedy grasping, which is so prevalent in religions.

QUIETLY RESPONDING

Go into quiet meditation. Remember Spirit is as fully present within and about you as anywhere else. Open your body to sense the Presence - remember you are a Temple. Surrender into be-ing with Be-ing. Rest here a while, forgetting all else. When your mind wanders, graciously re-center in This.

Blessings!
Rev Dr Brian K Wilcox
June 7, 2009
barukhattah@embarqmail.com

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*OneLife Ministries is a ministry of Brian K. Wilcox, of SW Florida. Brian lives a vowed life and with his two dogs, Bandit Ty and St. Francis. Brian is an ecumenical spiritual leader, open to how Christ manifests in the diversity of Christian denominations and varied religious-spiritual traditions. He is Senior Chaplain for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Punta Gorda, FL.

*Brian welcomes responses to his writings or submission of prayer requests at barukhattah@embarqmail.com . Also, Brian is on Facebook: search Brian Kenneth Wilcox.

*Contact the above email to book Brian for Spiritual Direction, retreats, or workshops. You can order his book An Ache for Union at major book dealers.

 

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