I was reading a post here, a lovely and painful description of convincement and felt called to write a few lines.
It seems to be it all comes down to the Quaker practice of openness. God is only a word. We live in a universe that is following some sort of order, balance, cooperative motion, a world that hangs together and works. If thee is to call that equation of cooperation an accident or God, is all the same, it does not change that it is.
Now, I, frankly, feel a wee tad bit uncomfortable when I see the concept of “magic Quakerism”… “we all got together and channeled the light and healed that person’s illness… ” or some such … fact is … seems logical to me that if there is a consciousness we can understand as being aware in human terms, to this whole equation, (which most religions often say there is likely not… most say we can’t understand the ways of “God”, ) that power knows enough that our prodding towards any result is just ego on our part. But, in coming together something does happen, even if it is only our pausing to realize we are a small part of each other, extending out into a huge interconnected universe, where nothing happens but that it is a part of the whole.
Now, in all this, I should say, I am a dyed in the Woolman, raised to long for whalemeat and penguin eggs ( traditional Northeastern Quaker diet – I’m afraid ) Hicksite traditionalist. I do use the word God, but in so doing, say that I have no idea of the nature of that which is… other than to say I presume it is the totality of existence and coming into existence… and that my life’s path is hugely influenced by a rabbi named Yeshua, who died because his nation was occupied and oppressed, who I believe would slap silly anyone who placed his image between their heart and the indescribable God of his people’s tradition and his ministry.
I think we get hung up on our descriptions of theism and non-theism. Many Christocentric Friends regard me as a complete heretic, and many post Hicksite Friends regard me as a Jesus freak. And in the end, what vanity to say we know anything at all, other than the world seems to follow logical patterns, and that it is unlikely that whatever God is, those patterns would be broken for the vanity of God.
Lovingly in the light with ye,
lor
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