August 20, 2019

• God is present at all times

• The nature of God’s love

• Other universes, both physical and spiritual

• Moving in the flow of God’s love compared to school of fish

It is God, it is the Spirit Center, that you seek. Each of you seeks a closer understanding, a greater awareness, of what it means to welcome the presence of God into your daily life. You all speak at one time or another about your concern that God be present in the world because of such suffering, such need, such misunderstanding, and such blatant miscommunications. God understands your needs for a greater perception of God within that enormous realm that you observe in the universe and throughout the earth. But it seems too seldom that you, not only you but all others, make a real effort to observe the presence of that Spirit Center within the realm of your own activities on a day to day basis.

When you meet with friends, God is present.

When you spend time with family, God is present.

When you interact with those who seek to help you, God is present.

When you experience anxiety or doubt or fear, God is present.

When you rejoice and celebrate, God is present.

There is nothing that you are engaged with on a daily basis that occurs without the presence of the Spirit Center.

One of our great challenges as we gather and guide is to bring the realization of God into the here and now. It is often easier to consider the spiritual reality of God when you speak in general terms about the suffering of many, natural catastrophes, events that are not directly experienced by you. It is a very different challenge for us to help you grow in your active awareness that God is with you on each step you take on your path.

The reality of the Spirit Center is such that all is important, all is vital, for all has been the consequence of the creative energy that is the Spirit Center, that is God. Since all is the result of God’s presence, all is therefore vital and important. The decisions that you make on a daily basis are no less important than the decisions that you make that impact many people. Whether the impact is one or a thousand, there is still an impact, and it impacts something belonging to the creation of God. It is for that reason that you as individuals are no less important, no less vital, no less essential than any other item on the great list of creation.

It is never inappropriate to ask for God’s help with everything you encounter, whether you’re dealing with people, issues, health, any relationship—companions, family members—it is all the same. God is in that relationship. When you have concerns about self, that is not self-serving. It is not selfish to be concerned about issues that you may face, for all face issues. What is important is your commitment to bringing the presence of God into everything that you encounter. There is nothing that is too small for that presence to be exercised.

Human beings will characterize God, or their Gods, however the creative force is identified, as having almost human characteristics, for you speak of the hands of God, the heart of God, the eyes of God, the touch of God. These are all human equivalents, and they can serve to provide a means of identity that you may feel toward the creative spiritual center to which all of you belong. God is not a human being, that you know, and therefore God does not engage in retribution or anger. God does not punish. God does not bring wrath down upon the human condition. God contains none of these characteristics which are limited because they are human. The general reference to God, therefore, is not a reference to some human-like presence.

The God who truly exists exists beyond the human descriptors that have belonged to the human experience from the very beginning. Does God feel love? Yes, but the human understanding of love is not closely related to what we refer to as God’s love, for God’s love is not just a feeling. God’s love is a nurturing power that uplifts and strengthens. God’s love gives meaning to human life. God’s love gives purpose and direction. God’s love is the force that is behind the countless universes that we speak of. These universes are physical and spiritual.

The universe that you are aware of and that science is eager to explore exists far beyond the human capacity to understand, to grasp, to comprehend. This love of God impacts an infinite dynamic, an infinite dimension, infinite in its size and infinite in its small quality. For a long time, science thought the atom—the protons, neutrons, electrons, and nucleus—was part of the smallest components that were associated with life or anything that existed. You now understand that each of those supposedly essential elements are in turn comprised of a large number of other entities. Those other entities have been named and described in terms of their function and behavior. Some have been described because they exist in theory but have never been seen, but each of those has an infinite number of subcategories.

The love of God is part of the existence of those subcategories as well as the concepts of the universe. There is a unifying component to all that exists beyond your universe and within your universe, and that is God, and that is the love of God. We say that God cares for each of you. That caring is beyond the human sense of caring. It is supplying a kind of balance that gives meaning to existence. There is an energy that is God that is positive, that is beneficial, that uplifts, supports, and provides relevance and meaning to all. We use the term “God’s love” because it is the term most easily understood in human form, and yet the capacity and the full meaning of that love of God goes beyond anything that could be described as human-like.

There is a logic, a rhythm, that belongs to all that exists. When you are in the middle of that rhythm, you don’t see its association with the impulses that surround that rhythm. We can say that you don’t fully comprehend the position of the earth within the Milky Way, nor do you really sense the full reality of the Milky Way within the universe as you know it to be. There is no way you can comprehend your universe in its relationship to others.

What is the relationship between the physical universe and the spiritual universe? There are other forms of energy, other forms of life, and other kinds of elements that exist beyond your recognition. The fact that they are not recognized does not change the reality of their existence. All that is has a rhythm. All that is is part of a flow, an energy that connects everything to everything else. That energy, that connection, is part of what God is. You belong to that, and therefore you are vital to that reality.

We say that no energy is lost. It is only transformed. It is only converted. But that transformation, that conversion, is as it should be because that exists within this overall flow. God is far more than a human-like presence when we say that you exist always in view of the love of God, and yet to describe that reality in other ways would seem to most to contain no logic, no identity, no reality. We say to you “God loves,” because God does love, but the love that you experience is only one part, one very small component of the reality of what love is.

You know love to be an energy, to be a feeling, a bond, a connection of some sort with something outside of the self. To the extent that you identify that there is a bond with a band that connects each of you to this creative force that is God, you can then understand when we say you are loved by God. You are in the flow of God. You are as you should be in God. You are not permanent. Your impressions, your evaluations and judgments are not permanent, but they still are part of this flow of God.

You are a fish in a huge school of fish in the deep ocean. That school of fish can have a flow that you can observe. There is shape and logic and dimension to it. There is movement to it. It exists as a kind of entity, and yet each fish in that school is unaware of the magnitude of that school and is unaware of the ultimate shape of that school. Each fish is aware of what’s in its vision. Each fish senses a kind of energy that binds it to the others, but seen at a distance, that school is not a combination of thousands of fish that seem to move as a single body.

So it is with each of your lives. You don’t see a single entity that is the school. You see yourself. You feel some energy. You are aware of others nearby and perhaps farther away, but you don’t see the pattern. You don’t see the flow. You don’t sense the external rhythm that guides your school. And yet that rhythm exists. That rhythm gives meaning to the motion of the fish. There is a direction. It is not chaos. There is order and a sense of belonging. There is a sense of unity without necessarily knowing the full scope of their reality.

God’s energy surrounds that school of fish, just as God’s energy surrounds all of human life on your earth, just as God surrounds all that is inanimate on your earth, just as God surrounds all earths, all planets, all solar systems, all universes. You are in the flow. You belong in the flow. You can find peace when you are part of that flow. You can find a sense of belonging as you open yourselves to that energy that unites each of you together, and you can be thankful for the views that you have that demonstrate the connections that exist between you and all else that has been created.

You are in that flow. You are in the love of God. You are in God’s direction. Your paths move as that school moves. There is reason, there is purpose, and there is a beauty that comes from that reason and purpose. You never swim outside of the flow. You never exist for a moment, nor do you do anything in your individual lives that is outside of that magnificent flow in the deep ocean lit by the light that shines through. Feel uplifted in this flow. Know that you belong. Know that there is purpose in everything you do day by day. The smallest task is always done as part of God’s love.

Swim forward. Be in this flow. Rejoice that you are part of a grand reality that was composed of love and invisible energy that binds all together and gives purpose and beauty.

Amen.