If God Spoke to Me

Prophets and preachers, attuned to the sounds of heaven, translate the voice of God to their flocks below.

But if God spoke to me, what would it say? In silence, I hear this:

“I am the Father of Abraham, the Mother of Isaac, and the earth that envelopes them all. I am the immutable laws of the universe and the chemicals bouncing in your brain. Those who invoke me and those who deny me all share in my being, for being is my nature.

People feel me in connections. Feel my energy in the pews of a church, listening to a sermon on the values of traditional marriage. Feel me in a Civil Rights rally, marching for the freedom to unify with the ones you love. Feel me in the mountains of Afghanistan, in the spirit of the warriors under Osama Bin Laden, fighting for a lifestyle, fighting for a life. Feel me in the sorrow of New York City on September 11, 2001. Feel me in the cry for assistance to Haiti, and in the energy of those who heed the call. I am. I am existence. I am the united. And my power grows with the numbers who join, joining me.

Fight me against me! You have, and you will continue to do so. And I will bolster your Churches, and I will fuel your Taliban, and I will inspire all who help those stricken by natural disaster, for unity does not exist without me. The more you unify, the more you know of me. Your laws, your rules, when used to separate, to segregate, to describe and prescribe a life, will each have a piece of me in their spheres of unity.

But take these segregationist rules away, find common ground, and two previously separate unities merge into one, and there I am in more fullness. You will feel me ever stronger, and you will look back and say, "This is a truer God, for it is a more complete God."

He who is without blame cast the first stone. He who is with blame, reach out and unify, and find me there.”

This is what God said to me.

What does your God say to you?

***DISCLAIMER***
I am afraid that this piece will anger many, many people, and maybe rightfully so, for I didn't clearly make known my views about God.
I should say that I don't believe in God, especially not a conscious God, but I FIRMLY believe in the religious experience. I let go of my idea of God when I was 15 years old, after I watched a video of thousands of people worshiping at the Ka'bah. I wondered to myself, if entire nations believe in their God as strongly as I believe in mine, how can I know which one is correct? The mere "feeling" of God doesn't do me any good as a measure.
And yet, I had felt it, so I empathize with the "Knowledge of God" that comes through gut, raw inuition.
So let's say that groups of people unify under similar experiences of God--or similar experiences of values, or similar experiences of conviction in the 'right' way of living. How can we measure which system of feeling is better than the next?
In my view, the systems that allow for the most freedom, the most love, the most acceptance and unity, are categorically better than those that prohibit freedom and acceptance. Why? Because when we look at what each religion or movement has in common, it is a sense of unity, of something greater than ourselves in which we play a part. And if that something can be made categorically larger by including more people, more walks of life, and still finding the unity within, that is a more comprehensive, greater unity than the one that preceeded it.
So No, I do not support the Taliban. I think their system is closed, critical and wrong. And No, I do not support churches that would deny people to marry the ones they love. But, I DO believe that people who participate in those systems feel God through a sense of unity In those systems. And I do believe that opening your system to more walks of life provides a greater sense of unity, and thus ultimately, a greater Feeling of God, whatever that may mean for the individual.