God based religion is good but it can also be great. This greatness isn’t at all what people imagine it to be: the mega millions and mansions of the televangelists, the absolute centuries old decrees of Rome, or the populist power and will of extremist followers and their hate and fear based political victories. The greatness is of a completely different realm and nature. It’s simple and pure, and simply when Christians, devotees of faith, reach out and try, through service, charity, celebration, the arts and understanding to touch the hand of God, and to truly thank, share and worship him/her/them.
This striving, which is often very hard but truly effortless, is by the grace and love of God. Its a power that moves and creates great art, music and laws, guides great philosophy and social change and sustains sane, sound, just morality. It makes kind, brilliant, dutiful and heroic people. It creates peaceful, forward moving societies, cultures of wisdom, strength, and kindness. It saves the lives and faith of the low, meek and needy. It is an inextinguishable flame coming from an inextinguishable source.
The greatness of God belongs to us all and it resides in every human heart. Always as love, care and hope, and sometimes as hate, loathing and fear. It exists and all good and great in life is powered by it. It empowers greatness- truth, understanding, faith, kindness, charity, love, hope, virtue and correct judgement. It’s the only thing that can sustain us, human life, our beautiful world and it’s all that makes our world beautiful, good and free.
This awe and greatness is always in our hearts in human need to worship, share, give laud and thanks. Understanding this greatness allows us to make use of it. It can sustain ourselves, and also power good, great and true political and social progress and movements. In fact, its the only thing that can.
In our cynical, untrue and hateful world and status quo this power, God, matters more than ever. Understanding them, their power and the life and change they can bring is what we need to do to continue the battles and to win.
God’s power is only for good. It is the treasure buried on the top of the mountain. World peace, love for all beings especially the meek and powerless. A world where people are kind and care about one another, our animals, our planet and our responsibilities. A world where evil isn’t celebrated, accepted or tolerated. That’s all it is, but this power, alone, in our hearts, has created life on our planet, created our world and all the beauty within it.
Our world may have been created by nature and natural means, but its only having God in your heart, the quest for God that allows you to see it all: the greatness, true beauty and majesty, and the need as well.
In our secular world, and speaking as a Christian secular, we call and see “God” as many things: human good, science and nature, cosmic force and power, truth, higher morality, lawfulness, a higher power, peace, justice, karma, greatness, love or simply magic. My definition is more of a conceptual one, combining greater power and spiritual belief that doesn’t require clear understanding or definition. Put simply, it’s a warm, empowering feeling and faith in rhe power and victory of the good and justice. And a place of joy, wonder and gratitude for a world of beauty, blessings and magic that I don’t need to understand to be blessed by. This is how my beliefs have evolved and even as a secular person, it still brings peace and power to my understanding of life and goals as an activist.
Not all people believe or want to and totally fine with me. Peace occurs when we all learn to respect and be at peace with diversities of faith, outlook and opinion. Only morality, reality, and ethics are what we need to agree upon and the many definitions of “God” and good, truth and reality given us to 2000 years of the faithful and true is guidence enough to what good is and is not. Those differences, between good and evil, truth and lies, love and hate matter, not whether someone believes in God, is of a faith, or what form of faith or God they worship if any.
We don’t all need to worship a God or a religion but a world without the power of worship, of awe and humility, one that is unwilling look into greater morality, truth, reality, and beingness that has inspired so much beauty and progress, is a world without grace, truth, meaning, beauty or care. It’s a world run on comforting sin, untruths, fear, and apathy. It’s our world of today brought about by demands for us all to be “cool”, modern and one that equates cruelty, selfishness, lies, injustice, and ignorance with sanity, and modernity.
There is nothing to fear from God and the understanding of he/her/them. Life really cannot exist without he/her/them.
To many God is a merely a construct or concept. That’s fine. We all have our own idea of what God or our higher power is. Whatever your concept of a spiritual or higher power, an understanding of God, Jesus, the Bible, and religion does give fullness, depth, and color to the picture. It adds power, purpose, and beauty and it explains alot of things. I’m grateful for my progressive faith upbringing for validating my care and love for others as good things and for giving me a road map in how to be a good person and be blessed in life.
A world without God, without faith, hope, love and light, is indeed a dark place. It is where evil, lies and hate flourishes and thrives. Whatever your beliefs, you cannot deny the existence of this need for a higher power to comfort, guide and sustain, even if it comes from our collective hearts, minds and will.
If you cannot accept or believe in God, make sure then to believe and wholly respect good which is basically the same thing. This secular belief with actions and a life that supports that belief, is enough to guide you in the right direction and to enhance you understanding as you grow. Let good be your higher power, your purpose. We can all create God’s world, a wholly good world. We just need to let go of fear and ignorance, intolerance and fear, and then we can understand, create, build, reconstruct this world together. And we always have and we alwsys will.
