the God within

There is a phrase that can be found on countless t-shirts, cutting boards, bumper stickers, and mugs. I was once gifted a Bible (from its publisher) with this excerpt from Psalm 46 scrawled across the cover. In clean, gold script it bore the words, "God is within her, she will not fail." But outside of these products, I can say that I have not heard a single sermon preached on the God within her. The God within women in general. Actually, until I found Unity - I never really heard about God in any of us.

Except Jesus.

A brief note on excerpts and interpretations: In Psalm 46, there is no actual woman. It is instead referencing the strength of Jerusalem. The NRSA edition of the Bible reads, "God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns."

For me, knowing the historical and allegorical context related to Psalm 46 scoops up the personal treasure of God being within me and places that same treasure within all of us. It aligns with the oneness and wholeness theology of the Unity movement. It takes what is for one (person, gender, tribe) and allows for a ripple. In fact, it invites it.

This theology feels foreign in a society that holds in such reverence stories like Eve and the apple.

The idea that Cornell's Jane Doe is you and me doesn't feel foreign though.

When I consider fifteen years in birth-turned-death work, women's life coaching and yoga practice, and leading mostly-female teams, I can say that I have held the immense honor of kicking off my shoes to sit in the trenches of deeply personal, deeply honest stories that have wreaked havoc on women's lives not just for a moment - but for months, years, decades. Stories that do not start nor end in those trenches. There have been countless times when women have told me similar stories – and, I have had to metabolize that this tie that binds them binds many more. The pains that shape us are rarely ours alone.

On this metabolic journey, the idea of God within us all has been strengthened within me. And, I wonder how many of the women who share their stories in the media get to experience it, too. Might the radical and fierce harmony of “me too” be a force for a kind of awful good? I know that in previous seasons I have been bolstered by it, myself.

But "me too" isn’t the end point. Even if it might be the voice of God.

(Not God as an estranged being sitting on a mountaintop, but the shared breath of self and neighbor.)

All this to say, my present wish for us goes beyond raised voices. It goes far beyond women not being viciously assaulted on campus (or anywhere), the blessed Nolan Wells of the world being safe, or our Haitian earth siblings (and many in the United States) having access to clean drinking water. My present wish is that we begin to answer one question and then, move with it.

And, that one question is this:

What separates us from good or God within?

Informed by a theology that understands humankind as Imago Dei - you and I made in the image and likeness of a good God, Universe, and Cosmos - my soul says that to know who we are is the starting point of all wellness and well-being. And the end point? What do we do with this knowledge?

I think we move with it.

Sometimes, I still get caught up in a thriller or documentary series attempting to unpack how people go from loving, curious things to vehicles of mass destruction – but, I more-often find myself caught up in doing the work for humankind to find good or God within. Not just women. But all who become separate from innate divinity. Including those whom we would deem perpetrator or oppressor. (I’m not sure the latter gets me many fans. But I’m not here for the fans.)

Because if finding God within us is the starting point, looking for God in others must be the natural next step on this path. Even when we’re triggered.

It may need to be said I'm not asking you to forgive what feels unforgivable. You get to decide what to do with the experience of others not showing up as their most divine selves.

What I am inviting us into is the work of identifying what separates us from good or God within. We don’t have to wait until morning nor mourning to be the change we want to see in the world. Or, to ask for support in becoming that change.