April 26, 2020

God has many names and descriptions.  Today it seems enough to describe God as whatever one believes to be the Source of love and grace and meaning.

All the evidence I need to sustain my faith that God is present is that we gather to seek God together, including in each other; to encourage, and to try to inspire, each other; and to strive to live up to that of God in each other, in our ancestors, and in our children. 

Each of us is called to be an agent, a messenger, an emissary of God.  We may sometimes think that we cannot find God – or that God is neglecting us, or has even abandoned us.  We may feel sometimes like astronauts in space who have lost our connection to Mission Control.  But it becomes apparent, when we simply do our best as emissaries of love and peace, as agents of grace, that God is always present for, and in, everyone who does so.

April 5, 2020

Gandhi said, "if you don’t find God in the next person you meet, it's a waste of time looking for him further."

But what about all the people we don't meet?

In particular, what about the approximately 66,500 human beings - every one of whom had a part of God in her, or in him - who have died in the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic so far? How is God not diminished by such a loss of God's creations, vessels, and agents?

I do not know. But I believe God is not diminished. God is not diminished by the deaths of hundreds of thousands of other people every day from other causes. God has not been diminished by the deaths of countless of his human, and other, creations since the beginning of time. For God is the power of life itself, and death is a part of life.  God is the Holy Spirit, the power of love.  Being in each person, God is in the collective power of human agency and human love.

As the present pandemic shakes and ravages human society around the world, let us continue to seek and find that of God in every person, and to represent Love - to represent God - in helping to care for each other.