Who Are We To Say?

I try not to go on rants about..well, about anything--outside of my journal--but this thought of the day, I guess, has been sitting in my inbox for over 4 months now, and I can't seem to delete it without saying something about it. So here goes:

From Jerry & Esther Hicks:

When that which is god -- or that which is that which man wants to call "God" -- is being understood by man, man has to translate it into the format he understands. But this Energy -- this Source that man is giving the label of "God", cannot be quantified in anything that man understands. And as man attempts to do it, the distortions are enormous.

Are we (humans) really so arrogant as to believe that we know we are right about who and what God is? About what God's intentions are with the world? Are we really so arrogant as to distort those beliefs and amend them to fit our lives? To suppose that we know who and where and how God has intervened into our lives? And that we ought to make sure everyone else understands just what we understand so they can be just as right with the world and God as we are?

I believe there's something strong, something profound about faith and believing in a power greater than ourselves. There must be, in order for life to be what it is, with all its eccentricities and life forms and microorganisms and coffee flavors. This is my belief, and I hold to it. That being said, my belief in no way diminishes or replaces whatever your belief, no matter how strongly you or I believe in them; they neither cancel each other out nor are in absolution, the Truth of what is. 

We cannot possibly know who and what we don't understand. And when we attempt to say that we do understand, we end up distorting whatever Truth that is unknown. Much of what is written about God comes from an archaic age, and has not changed with the times. Would we conduct business the same as we did 2,000 years ago because that's how someone who said he heard God speak said we should? 

So much is written about God, and even more so, translated. The bible is the most translated book in the history of books. Translation is neither simple, nor exact. Anyone who is fluent in more than one language knows that there is often not an exact word or phrase  when translating from one language to the other. Each language has its own idiosyncrasies and groupings of words that don't make sense when separate but ring true in their original form.

I find it interesting that we, "man", hold God in such high regard and say that He is all knowing and then promptly decide that we know what He's talking about (or what He even said to begin with). We allow ourselves to believe that our vision of God is the (only) Truth, rather than opening up to the idea that there may be many Truths, or at least that our Truth may not be all there is to it. 

Sheryl Crow, Hard to Make A Stand:

We got loud guitars and big suspicions,
Great big guns and small ambitions,
And we still argue over who is God
And I say, "Hey there Miscreation,
Bring a flower time is wasting
We all need a revelation"

But I wonder if part of the problem is that we're all trying to make a stand instead of listening, learning, being open to what someone else has to say instead of creating a space in which others must conform to. It is not possible to understand what we think of as God. I hope I am not so arrogant as to say that what I believe is the only Truth. 

Seek first to understand, and then to be understood. Love thy neighbor. And stop trying to be better than everyone else. Just try to be better than who you were yesterday. The world will be a much better place.