Chapter Two: Episode 12
Can You See More in God?
The More of God
Just as Jesus reveals that we can be and do more – he also, in his teachings, invites us into a personal relationship with the source of his own “more” – God.
Jesus invites us to think of The More as a divine being who loves and cares for us – a “Father.”[1] Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 6:26-34)
And so, in Jesus’s teaching, The More is not just some amorphous something that surrounds our lives, like a “blob of tapioca pudding,” as C. S. Lewis once joked. No! The More can be experienced as an abiding, eternal personality – that of a loving, providing parent who even cares for sparrows.
We might say that religious faith is living with confidence that our world is suffused with a loving personality, an infinite provider, a purposeful spirit who seeks our good -- God.
What a wonder-filled, confident way to live. That’s a map that gives courage!
Reverence without Religion?
Yet, just like with the Sabbath discussed previously, you may not want to accept the religious dimensions of this experience: “Hey, can’t I have my Sublime moments -- without all this God stuff?” “Can’t I have my ‘more’ without it being THE MORE?”
Just as before, you face a choice. Non-religious hikers, divers, scientists, and philosophers do experience The More, The Sublime. But notice this: they may cut short, reduce, or block the mystery of The More. The nonbeliever may minimize her experience of awe, saying. . .
· “That mysterious ‘more’ is nothing but a lingering reaction from primitive days, when humans imagined gods behind the crack of thunder.”
· “The Sublime is nothing but the pleasure of surviving an immense danger, like scaling a rocky peak.”
· “Our experiences of transcendence are nothing but emotions soaring past the dictates of good sense and reason.”
These are all Reductionist responses – reducing one’s own exhilarating, expansive awareness to, “This is nothing but. . .” Yet, remember what the great physicist Richard Feynman wrote? “Nothing is ‘mere.’”
Yes, nothing is “mere” -- there is More!
Reverence for “The More” of Life: Your Rational Decision
What will you choose? To live with the thrilling, spiritual meaning of your experiences of The Sublime -- “I am part and particle of God”?
Or to live in a paler, prosaic world of, “This is nothing but. . .”?
Which map will guide you to deeper reverence before The More of life?
(Continued March 3: Chapter Three: Episode 13)
To Eight Trails readers: Does this post suggest a moment you’ve experienced and, perhaps, a photo you took? Share your photos with me by clicking “reply” to this emailed post. I would be delighted to include them in new posts — of course, crediting you!
[1] See Chapter One, footnote 1 for a discussion about masculine language and images for God.