Where is God?

This year we have been asking the question, "Where do you find God?".  At Lenten services, we heard a different answer each week from the experiences and lives of different people.  We continue to ask the question and explore the answers we hear and read.  This is part of a journey that we are on as individuals and as a community, as we grow in our vision and connect to God, others, and self.

One Saturday morning in May, a small group gathered to reflect on this and the related question, "Where is God?", using Diana Butler Bass's book Grounded as the launching point for our conversation and to make connections.  As part of morning prayer, we read statements that Pastor Tuula had found for us to begin to contemplate the question.  Do any of these speak to you?  Here are the statements...

"To follow God, one must be a little 'out of their mind' (and 'into their Spirit')."  -- Donald L. Hicks

"A common mistake we make is that we look for God in places where we ourselves wish to find him, yet even in the physical reality this is a complete failure.  For example, if you lost your car keys, you would not search where you want to search, you would search where you must in order to find them."  -- Criss Jami

"When you can see God in small things, you'll see God in all things." -- Donald L. Hicks

"How can you seek God if he's already here?  It's like standing in the ocean and crying out, 'I want to get wet.'  You want to get over the line to God.  It turns out he was always there."  ...  "Grace comes to those who stop struggling.  When it really sinks in that there's nothing you can do to find God, he suddenly appears.  That's the deepest mystery, the only one that counts." --Deepak Chopra

"God is here, right now, at our side.  We can see him in this mist, in the ground we're walking on, even in my shoes.  His angels keep watch while we sleep and help us in our work.  In order to find God, you have only to look around." -- Paulo Coelho

"What writing teaches me, over and over, is that God is waiting to be found everywhere, in the darkest corners of our lives, the dead ends and bad neighbourhoods we wake up in, and in the simplest, lightest, most singular and luminous moments.  He's hiding, like a child, in quite obvious and visible places, because he wants to be found.  The miracle is that he dwells in both." -- Shauna Niequist

"In order to have a spiritual life, you need not enter a seminary, or fast, or abstain, or take a vow of chastity.  All you have to do is have faith and accept God.  From then on, each of us becomes a part of His path.  We become vehicles for His miracles."  -- Paulo Coelho

"Listen to the murmur of water and you'll hear Mother Nature.  Listen to the stillness beneath, and there you'll find God."  -- Donald L. Hicks

"One of the most challenging aspects for those who are seeking to find the God of their understanding for the first time is His formlessness.  It can be difficult to believe in, and connect with, something that cannot be seen.  Perhaps this is because although God is in all things He is felt and experienced on levels that relate directly to the condition of our own hearts."  -- Marta Mrotek

"Truth is in all our hearts.  He who stands by his heart has God in him.  Our conscience is what unites us with God." -- Suzy Kassem