I am repeatedly pulled in by Catholic thinkers.
And there are others that I haven't gotten to yet simply because I'm so taken by these 3.
Their connections with God are mystical and deeply spiritual. Our Protestant friends are a little too structured and rules-based for my free-spirited mind.
For me, God is beyond all words and thoughts. It's hardly interesting to even try to explain God. At best, our words are dim reflections of a light source that is FAR beyond the visible spectrum we are capable of seeing or even understanding.
Our eyes can detect only a small part of this electromagnetic spectrum. What we can see is on this known spectrum:
Our machines now help us "see" beyond the visible spectrum.
God is not only that entire spectrum, God is an infinite number of spectrums we don't even know exist.
God is the multiverse of multiverses. God is infinite infinity. That's as close as I can possibly imagine God and even that is too small. (Oh, and of course God is infinitely smaller than the smallest particles imaginable. A Higgs boson elementary particle is an infinite multiverse compared to the smallness of God.)
Catholic thinkers seem to touch on this great metaphysical mystery.
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality.
Ultimately, this is just one tiny sliver of "God" as well. But it's this sliver that interests me. (I like thinking about the Universe and Quantum physics. So, of course, I like applying that same intellectual exercise to how I also think of God.)
I am a spiritual astronaut. I love floating in the black abyss of the great unknowable darkness that is God.
It's in this great abyss that I look. I seek.
It's not a light. It's not a sound. It's not a taste, or touch or smell. The only word we have left in human language to describe it is "feeling." I seek a feeling.
It feels more like a gravitational pull than anything else I can describe it as.
It is my personal Great Attractor. A spiritual gravitational anomaly.
That's what I'm looking for.
It runs in a completely different direction than from the gravitational pull of capitalistic society. The marketing, the advertising, the fear mongering of buying and purchasing. I feel that too, of course. I'm not immune.
But that gravity is shallow and hollow. The only thing it does is create more pull and more desire to purchase more. That's what our society wants of us.
As President Bush reminded us after 9/11, even in the face of great terror we must continue to "be bold" and conduct business and shop. That's the American fundamental belief system. Capitalism.
The tragedy of it all is that it's a lie. Business and buying is as much of a dangerous drug as heroin, fentanyl or crystal meth. It separates us from our family, from our friends and what is truly important... our community.
America is selling us a potent, addictive drug and tells us it is the "American way."
The power of it is that they promise the happiness that comes with great amounts of money is right over the next mountain. If you just make more money then you'll finally be happier.
As a person who has made some money, I can tell you: the happiness never comes. You were either a happy person to begin with or you weren't. The money never changes that.
So the satisfaction never comes. The payoff never comes. We just want more. Earn more. Buy more. It's never ending. And it's never fulfilling.
The sooner you can learn that truth the sooner you can change direction and look for meaning down another path.
Salvation and redemption and fulfillment.
These things can be found and had by any person on earth. Rich or poor. Any ethnicity. Any age. And ironically, I see more poor people and people with more suffering find this sooner than those who have the most things and the most to be grateful for.
The calling is coming together.
The calling is sharing.
The calling is community.
Often times, people like to use the word "giving". I use it too. But it suggests a kind sacrifice. It's not a sacrifice. It's the greatest feeling you will ever have.
Now... my community works for me. But it may very well not work for you.
My community is the homeless. Truth be told, I like working with them because I am a simple and lazy person. You can completely change a person's life with a dollar or a cigarette. It also seems like a great tragic, absurd human rights cruelty that in the richest country the world has ever seen, we can't see our way to give the poorest of poor ANYTHING to shelter themselves. Literally, I'd consider it a great win and advancement if we were permitted to put up human length dog houses with some some straw on the ground for insulation. That's why my community is the homeless.
But for you, that may very well not be your community.
My niece is an animal person. She has a deep connection with all animals. She is still in high school but it is my great wish that she always finds a way to work as deeply as she can in the animal community.
And there are environment people. And Central America people. And Africa people. And Middle East people. And immigrant people. It goes on and on.
Almost all of us hear the calling. Yet almost all of us ignore it.
Out of fear, we refuse to change direction from the great money attractor to the great God attractor.
Money fails us over and over again. God never fails us. God is right behind you waiting for you to turn around.
In the Bible the word they use is "Metanoia."
It's true meaning has been maligned with the translation as "Repent."
But it is much more nuanced than that. It is "a transformative change of heart; especially: a spiritual conversion."
It means: Turn Around.
God is right behind you. Turn Around.
You know the feeling. You have it regularly. You just choose to ignore it.
My great wish for you is that you open your heart to your great calling. You have it... whatever it may be.
When you start down the path of your great calling you begin fulfilling your destiny. You begin living your life as it was meant to be lived.
Be open to the "feeling" of your calling. It is the greatest gift God and Earth and Humanity together will ever give you.
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