Maybe I should get a nicer God
Lessons on God from a 4-year-old
When I was a kid, I was taught a lot of interesting things about God – that he (and he was always he) was an old man in the sky, and that he, much like Santa Claus, knew when I was sleeping, when I was awake and whether I had been bad or good. As we age, our ideas and images of God tend to change. There are many of us who harden those ideas about a daddy god that watches over us and takes care of things for us. There are others who broaden their ideas about God, and then there are those who ditch God altogether.
Sometimes, though, it's nice to ask others to tell you all they know about God – especially when those others are children. Author Monica Parker compiled some responses from children on how they see God in her book OMG: How Children See God.
5-year-old Piper said: "God can grow you and he can dance but he cannot type."
8-year-old Jacob said: "God cannot create the earth because scientists discovered something about the Big Bang a few months ago."
7-year-old Remy said: "God lives inside every living thing. So, my doctor has seen God when he cuts people open."
10-year-old Sadie said: "I like to think that when it rains, God's taking a shower."
The wisest insight, I think, came from a 4-year-old who was aptly named Solomon. He said: "God makes light and dark. He makes people and animals. He makes stars shine and makes people do good things. Except the God in my head makes me do bad things. Maybe I should get a nicer God in my head."
That is the whole reason we're having this bodily experience – to remember that we all need "a nicer God" in our heads. We've all grown up with images of God that, as Meister Eckhart observed, make us sad. We've been told that God is all loving, but at the same time, will send you to hell for all eternity if you slip up and do something on the list of no-no's that some religion or other has compiled and attributed to God.
According to A Course in Miracles, we believe in a punishing, wrathful God because we feel guilty for believing in the "tiny mad idea" of separation. We believe we deserve to be punished because we are separate from God. In our belief that we caused this separation and offended God, we set up these harsh religious systems in this bodily world that remind us of how sinful and terrible we are and that no matter how good we are, it's only through God's sacrifice of his own son that God can even bear to look at us again, let alone forgive us.
This line of thinking, of course, leads us into all manner of self-flagellation, shame, blame, and guilt. We create religions of winners and losers – the saved and the damned – and we convince ourselves that our belief system got it right and everyone else is wrong. We invent Gods that keep us passive – that teaches us blind obedience, abhors questions, and demands that we simply trust and obey.
We often build our religious world in the way Catholic priest and mystic Richard Rohr describes in his book The Divine Dance: Exploring the Mystery of Trinity as that pyramid-shaped universe with that stern, always male, God "at the top of the triangle and everything else beneath. Humanity's capacity to disguise its own flaws, even through religion, seems endless," Rohr says. "Pyramid or patriarchal logic is only 'logical' when applied in favor of the system and the status quo—which it proudly calls the 'real world.' Our very inability to recognize that shows how little influence the dynamic [God] had on our historical ways of thinking."
In other words, Solomon is right, we need a nicer God in our head. The good news is that nicer God exists and is already in our head. Remy is also right that God is in every living thing, but we build barriers to that God because we've allowed the ego to do such a good job at convincing us that we're sinners in the hands of an angry god.
What happens when we believe in this world's wrathful and controlling gods? According to a study done last year, we get less creative. Researchers had people think about God before doing a task that required them to think creatively to solve it and they found that those who believed in a monotheistic God were less creative than those who didn't.
It's important to know, though, what believers thought about when they thought about God. The participants "generated a multi-faceted image of God," the researchers write, "including elements such as him being omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent and the creator of the world." It's interesting to note that the researchers use the pronoun "him" when referring to how study subjects saw God, which may be their own bias, or may be indicative of the kind of God these subjects were thinking of – specifically that male one that sits at the top of Rohr's pyramid, keeping us all in line with the egoic world's status quo of obedience.
How do we break down this barrier of God that makes us less creative and more apt to accept the world we see instead of the world we want to create? In a word, we must reclaim our creativity.
Removing the barrier of God
What this study revealed is this: those who conceived of God as omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent and the creator of the world slipped into a passive mindset – expecting God to handle everything and demanding nothing from them. However, the researchers also found that those who view God as unconditionally loving, forgiving and "as a source of creativity or that God works through them to unveil his creations, this may be compatible with creative expression."
Now, we're on to something big. Our ideas about God are no longer a barrier to love when we realize we've been duped by the ego's ideas about God as some vending machine where prayer goes in and stuff comes out, or as an insurance policy against burning for eternity in some manner of fiery hell. The ego's views of God make us passive and uncreative. Seeing God for who and what it really is – that unitive force in the universe – helps us realize that we are not passive observers, but proactive co-creators with God, here to actively take part in our own awakening, and subsequently the awakening of the entire world.
As A Course reminds us, God can only act in this world through us. We miscreate in this world when we expect the angry and spiteful gods of this world to guide us. If we want to see what that kind of miscreation looks like, just take a peek and the news and see how many wars, pogroms and crusades we've made against each other in God's name. Violence, tribalism, fear and division are never creative. In this state, we limit the power of God to work through us to bring about love, peace and joy into the world.
"There is no order of difficulty in miracles," A Course says in Chapter 11, "because all of God's [children] are of equal value, and their equality is their oneness. The whole power of God is in every part of God, and nothing contradictory to God's Will is either great or small. To God all things are possible."
To the gods of this world that we've created, all things become impossible, because all we can do through these little tin gods is miscreate and bring about more and more separation and suffering. When we break down this barrier of our false ego-created gods, Rohr says we learn there's nothing to be afraid of.
"The … flow of God’s love is like the rise and fall of tides on a shore," Rohr writes. "In [this] Universe, reality can be pictured as an Infinite, Loving Outpouring that empowers and generates an Eternal, Loving Infolding. This eternal flow outward is echoed in history by every animal, fish, flower, bird, and planet you have ever seen. It is the universe: the first incarnation of God. All we have to lose are the false images of God that do not serve us and are too small."
Or, in Solomon's wise words, "Maybe I should get a nicer God in my head."
If we do that, the study shows, we become more creative, because we understand that we are the same as God – we can create miracles, we can be the change we want to see. We can use our power of love, joy, kindness, wonder, beauty and unity to create that within ourselves, which then creates that in the world around us. When we realize that, as Eckhart says, "It is a lie – any talk of God that does not comfort you," we will abandon the wrathful gods of the ego that limits our creativity in this world, and embrace the divinity of our higher Self that seeks to create only peace, love, joy and unity in every moment by remembering who we are – that open channel for God's light of love to shine through us.
The question then becomes what are all your thoughts on God about? Do you see that male at the top of the pyramid, that omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent creator of the world that demands that you to toe the line or be eternally damned? Or, do you envision an unconditionally loving and forgiving God that seeks to co-create love, joy and peace in the world with and through us?
If it is the latter, then there's good news for you from a 5-year-old named Ben. He has the key to help us see that creative, loving God everywhere we go. Ben's mother, Holli Lebowitz Rossi, writes about what happened when Ben wanted to know if we could see God.
"When we asked our rabbi about it," Rossi writes, "he replied that he believes he sees God when he looks into the eyes of other people. Ben loved this explanation and has repeated it to others. During a recent visit, our close friends' 3-year-old came up to me after speaking with Ben. She put her hands on my cheeks, looked deeply into my eyes and said, 'I see God.'"
This is a reminder that we are not passive participants in this world, waiting for some god to swoop down and save us. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are all God walking around in flesh suits, forgetting and remembering who we truly are. We are all God embodied, seeking to awaken to that one, singular truth about all of us.
Far from making us less creative, this knowledge should spur us to be constant creators of love, joy, peace and compassion in this world.
When we can see God in the eyes of everyone we meet, we can see the infinite power that lies within each of us, just waiting to be called forth to awaken ourselves and the whole world. It's in that moment that this barrier to love crumbles as we swap the wrathful egoic god in our heads for that nicer one that will make the whole world say: "Oh, Yeah."
Your turn: What are your images and beliefs about God? How have they changed - or not changed - over the years? Do you need a nicer God in your head?
Music for the Journey:
“Counting Blue Cars” by Dishwalla
What if you had a roadmap to help you awaken on your spiritual journey? The AWAKEN model will help you heal and get moving again. Join me online or in-person for this special workshop on Saturday, Sept. 10, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.
About this event
Sometimes we all feel lost on our spiritual journey - stuck in old ways of thinking, believing and acting. The AWAKEN model can help you heal those old patterns and get you moving again on your spiritual path. Rev. Candace Chellew, Motley Mystic and spiritual director at Jubilee! Circle, has developed a six-step process that helps you identify the patterns that are holding you in your limitations and a method to heal and release them.
This is a hybrid event held at 6729 Two Notch Road in Columbia, SC at Jubilee! Circle or on Zoom. Register to attend on Zoom
Light snacks will be served for those joining us in person.
A suggested donation of $15 is requested from all participants, but no one is turned away.
Want to learn more about A Course in Miracles?
NEW DAY AND TIME! Jubilee! Circle hosts an informal discussion group about A Course in Miracles every Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time. If you’re in the Columbia, SC area, you can join us in-person at 6729 Two Notch Road, Ste. 70 in Columbia. If you’re anywhere else in the world, join us by Zoom using the link below. Whether you’re new to ACIM, or have been studying it for years, this is a low-pressure, friendly environment to learn more and grow together! Join us:
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86088245457?pwd=bWd6QzhscGlUYnFnYUU1dy9uTUVMZz09
About the Motley Mystic:
The Motley Mystic is an online community for people who have realized that the truth speaks with many voices. There is no one religion, philosophy, institution or dogma that captures the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth. No one needs to swear allegiance to one line of thought or belief to discern Truth, because Love is the only thing that’s real. That’s what we explore at the Motley Mystic - all the tools and strategies we need to remove our barriers to Love and live fully as our true, Divine Self.
Candace Chellew is the founder of Motley Mystic as well Jubilee! Circle, an interfaith spiritual community in Columbia, S.C. She is also the author of Bulletproof Faith: A Spiritual Survival Guide for Gay and Lesbian Christians published in 2008 by Jossey-Bass and the founder and senior editor emeritus of Whosoever: An Online Magazine for LGBTQ People of Faith. She is also a musician and avid animal lover.