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God - The Alpha and The Omega

There would seem no better hypothesis to explain love and the force of evolution than the postulation of:

A God who loves us, who wants us to grow.

There would seem no better hypothesis to explain how it is that the unconscious possesses all knowledge that we have not yet consciously learned than the postulation of:

A God who is intimately associated with each of us - so intimately that he is part of us.

If we want to know the closest place to look for grace, it is within us. If we desire wisdom greater than our own, we can find it within us.

This suggests that the interface between God and man is in part the interface between our unconscious and our conscious. Our unconscious is God. God is within us. We are part of God all the time. God has been with us all along, is now and always will be.

The ultimate goal of spiritual growth is for us to become as one with God.

Since our unconscious is God, it is for the conscious self to become God-like. It is to know with God. God wants us to become God-like. We have been growing towards God who is the ultimate goal of evolution. This is the meaning of our individual existence. We are born that we might become, as a conscious individual, a new life form of God.

It is God who is the source of the evolutionary force and God who is the destination. This is what we mean when we say God is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.

Once we know God and become part of him, then we can through our conscious decisions influence the world according to his will. Our lives will themselves become agents for God's grace. We will become one form of God's grace, working on his behalf among people, creating love where it did not exist before, encouraging others in raising their level of awareness, pushing the plane of human evolution forward.

Communion

There is a joy that comes with this knowledge. Indeed, there is no greater satisfaction than that of being competent, of really knowing what we are doing. Those who have grown the most spiritually are the most competent in living. There is even greater joy in communion with God. For when we know what we are doing, we are participating in the omniscience of God. With total awareness of the nature of a situation, of our motives for acting on it, of the results and ramifications of our action, we have attained that level of awareness that we normally only expect of God. Our conscious self has succeeded in coming into alignment with the mind of God. We know with God.

Yet those who have attained this stage of spiritual growth, this state of awareness, are invariably possessed by a joyful humility. For they are aware that their unusual wisdom has its origin in their unconscious and their connectedness to God. The truly powerful experience a diminution in their sense of self:

"Let your will, not mine be done. Make me your instrument."

Such a loss of self always brings with it a kind of calm ecstasy, not unlike the experience of being in love. Aware of their connectedness to God, they experience a surcease of loneliness. There is communion.

Spiritual power

Spiritual power is not simply awareness; it is the capacity to maintain our ability to still make decisions with greater and greater awareness. It is consciousness. God-like power is the power to make decisions with total awareness. Contrary to popular perception, omniscience does not make decision-making easier. The closer one comes to God, the more one feels sympathy for God. To participate in God's omniscience is also to share his agony.

Spiritual power can be distinguished from political power because it resides entirely within the individual, as opposed to a given position or money, and has nothing to do with the capacity to coerce others. Political power is unrelated to goodness or wisdom. Very stupid and evil people have walked as kings on earth. People of great spiritual power may be wealthy and may on occasion occupy political positions of leadership, but they are as likely to be poor and lacking in political authority.

There is another facet of power: aloneness, i.e. the unavailability of someone to communicate with at your level of awareness. When we have evolved to the highest level of awareness, of spiritual power, we will likely have no one in our circle of acquaintances with whom to share such depth of understanding. One of the most poignant themes of the gospels is Christ's continual sense of frustration on finding that there was no one who could really understand him. No matter how hard he tried, how much he extended himself, he could not lift the minds of even his own disciples to his level. The wisest followed him but could not catch up with him. All his love could not relieve him of the necessity to lead by walking ahead, utterly alone. This kind of aloneness is common to all who travel the furthest on the journey of spiritual growth. It is such a burden that it could not be carried, except that as we outdistance our fellow humans our relationship to God inevitably becomes closer. In the communion of growing consciousness, of knowing with God, there is enough joy to sustain us.

Exploration and Discussion

1. The idea that God is actively nurturing you so that you can grow up to be like him can be both an ecstatic and a terrifying thought. What possibilities does it bring you face to face with?

2. Why does God want us to grow?

3. What are we growing towards?

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