The difference between ‘God’ and ‘good’ is the letter ‘o’.
In all that I say and do, in all that I think and write, that
which is of prime importance is God—not the god of the images we have rendered,
the theologies we have developed, nor the religions we have created—but the God
of the reality of our human existence. It
isn’t of concern to me what church, synagogue or temple you attend, nor even
the images and institutions you may have rejected in coming to unbelief. What is of concern is how intentionally we
each live our lives. Are we consciously
seeking ‘the good’? I believe that is God’s
concern also—many Bible passages state that rather than burnt offerings (sacrifice
and ritual), God wants clean hearts; and in Matthew 7:21 we find, "Not everyone
who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the
will of my Father.”
I believe we are
created in the image of God—but most of us have a very murky idea of what that
image is. God is so beyond our ability
to comprehend, we cannot know God—and
those who are sure they do know, are
wrong! In our unknowing we have
constructed multiple and massive falsehoods that have caused great human
suffering and led many to reject the concept of a God.
What I believe about God is not only ‘God is good’, but that
‘God is in all goodness’. You may say,
“What is goodness? . . .Who can say with any certainty? . . . Isn’t it just a
matter of opinion?” But I would argue,
“No! What we like, what we champion or what we want is a matter of opinion, but what is fundamentally good is
implanted in our soul and can be recognized and agreed upon when honestly evaluated.
My daughter sings a lullaby to her
little one each night as she tucks her in—that is good.
A neighbor yells loudly and harshly
at his son whenever he messes up—that is not
good.
Genesis tells us that as God created each element of
existence, “God saw that it was good”.
The issue here is not the ‘how’ of it, but the issue is of the goodness
of it. Life is the essential good; ‘to be’ opens the door to experiencing,
feeling, knowing and understanding.
What follows is that ‘the good’ is what sustains and
enhances life, both materially and spiritually; while what is not good is whatever destroys life either
physically or psychologically. If we
back up all the way to humanity’s first recognition of the basic good of
relationships we find some form of what we call the ‘Golden Rule’ that has
appeared in every society and religion.
‘Do unto others what you would have them do unto you’.
When we earnestly
seek God, we seek the good; and when we seek the good, we are seeking God. God
contains only the good, and too, God is contained
within all that is good.
* * *
Are We There Yet?
All religions are fallible—
Each structured by fallible men.
Yet each one discovers
some aspect of the Divine
that leads its followers
on a numinous path to God.
But oh how rocky the path
and circuitous the route!
Have faith, God is patient,
Evolution is measured in eons.
Evolution is measured in eons.