Recently I was asked to offer a submission to a book/website called Elevator Pitches for God. I was a bit surprised at the title, as God is not usually a topic of discussion in elevators, but I got the point that the essay was supposed to be short and to the point. Many illustrious leaders in a number of fields have posted their 500 words about their relationship with God, and they are fascinating, so I decided to give it a go. Now that it’s posted, I realize it is worth sharing with you, my beloved community, in hopes it will stimulate your own thoughts about who/what you may or may not call God. Please feel free to share!

I don’t believe in God – I experience God. Or rather, I have experiences that I call God because there’s no other word for them. What I feel is grace – another word for the divine love of God – a gift from something, somewhere that is ineffable, that is sacred, that is way beyond my understanding.

I love that God is mysterious and can show up anywhere anytime: in an encounter with a tree, being swept up in the sound of music, in the expanded vision of a work of art, in a miraculous meeting with another human soul. I am honored to be in regular communion with this Being or Beingness, Spirit, Source, Creator, All There Is. I live in awe and wonder at the Universe, and those feelings keep me constantly grateful for my life.

When I am afraid or in trouble, I pray to the God I have known since childhood. I was raised Catholic with Mother Mary, Jesus at the right hand of God the Father, and the Holy Ghost. I am grateful for my religious upbringing because it gave me a moral compass. Although I respect it, that is no longer my understanding. I had stopped being a practicing Catholic when I worked with Mother Teresa in the 1980s, yet being in her presence, her aura, her field of being, I knew that God, in some way of speaking, was available to me.

I had a similar experience years later when I met Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, who is the spiritual father of the gratitude movement. He often stayed at my home, and when we were together, I felt the grace of what most people would call God. Even when I think of him, I feel the presence of something vast and deep. In the company of people who’ve taken a vow to that which is called God – no matter what their religion – I can feel the power and presence of the divine.

I often feel it in the company of the Indigenous shamans who are our partners in the Pachamama Alliance. They do not speak of God, but rather of the sacredness of all creation – the holiness of not only animate beings, but of plants and rocks, lakes and mountains, planets and stars. One day, walking in the Amazon jungle with Manari Ushigua, shaman and leader of the Zapara people of Ecuador, he turned to me and asked, “Can you feel them?” Bewildered, I asked, “Feel what?” He waved his machete around and said, “The millions of souls surrounding us.” And at that moment an entire universe of beings came alive for me.

So I thank God that God is not a dogma or belief system with rules and do’s and don’ts that I am wedded to, because quite simply, for me, God is Love – a profound experience of love. That means being completely in awe of the way things are, and completely okay with the way things are not. If I can accept what is, I experience the peace and presence of the divine. And when I let go of my identity, I am an expression of God. I am not saying I am God, I am just saying this magnificent energy can come through someone even as tiny as me.

With love,

Lynne