Well, hats off to anyone who managed to wade through Part I! The goal of that posting was to explore the various ways we humans think about plans, especially with respect to plans intrinsic to nature and those that may be part of a supernatural reality. I tried to be objective but obviously have a perspective I think best fits the facts and my experience.

I left off while coming to a place where I believe there actually is a rational being who has multiple types of plans. I call this being God and I believe he is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all seeing) and omnipresent (existing everywhere all of the time). (This latter quality does not mean that he is IN all things, like what many eastern faiths believe … for instance, I don’t believe God is IN a rock or tree.)

I understand that some people reading this will not be comfortable with the idea of such a God. Some may gravitate to philosophies and religions common in Asia and found increasingly in “spirituality” movements in the west, that don’t match with monotheism. As I mentioned before, the concept of “energy”disassociated with a singular being in these perspectives is pronounced and manifests in various forms. The thinking goes, if only we could tap into that energy, use it for self-actualization or project its power on to things and other people for good, then we’d have found some version of “the secret.” All sorts of practices are designed to do this in some form. Yoga. Meditation. Feng Shui. Crystals. All are parts of a humanly-constructed plan to get from here to there by learning how to influence and use a thing people loosely describe as energy. While I tried to incorporate some variations of this thinking over the years, ultimately I found them to be insufficient to explain a reality that I couldn’t dismiss. Simply, there is a design to reality and it is rational. Since rational can’t come from irrational (perhaps debatable but that’s what I believe), there had to be a solution.

Eventually as everyone who reads this stuff knows, I couldn’t escape the recognition that a God actually exists. In fact, I discovered that this God has a grand plan and a plan for me. This was no small revelation. In the end, though, I didn’t have to make a huge leap to get there. The signs were extremely obvious and actually had been there all along. I was just too obstinate and self-absorbed to see them clearly.

With that, we arrive at my second question which is really a two-parter. What is God’s plan and what does that mean for me (or any of us) as individuals?

As you know, there are three main monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three share some similarities while addressing those two main questions.  Each believes in a rational and single God (set aside the trinitarian concept of the Christian God for now, please) who is behind all of creation, knows each of us inside and out, and seeks for us to follow him and act according to his will. There are other similarities but there are also some firm differences. They absolutely do not say the same thing. (Having said that, Judaism and Christianity are much more closely aligned than either is with Islam, for obvious reasons.) Fundamentally, each believes God has a grand plan and a plan for each of us. The most fundamental job for every human, according to these faith traditions, is to know what these plans are. Fortunately, for each of these, there are gazillions of clues, some of which are bold and obvious and some of which are extremely subtle and largely obscured. But the clues are there for the taking, only needing a lens or key to unlock them, a discussion of which may require an entirely different essay.

While there are plenty of people who disagree, I believe that the evidence supports one conclusion and that is that the Judaic worldview was brought to completion and fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of the itinerant rabbi from backwater Nazareth named Jesus. He is the Christ, the long-awaited anointed one of God, sent to save humanity. I get myth and I get science and I get belief and I get doubt. I live in a world where each of these is present in force. But put them all into the pot and I continue to get just one outcome and that is the one I just stated.

So, moving on … what does one who accepts this about Jesus (a Christian) believe about God’s plan for everything and for me, specifically?

I’m going to try to make this as simple as possible and in a way it is. But, it’s actually incredibly complex when taken in totality and I can’t possibly go there exhaustively.

First, God has a general plan. Let’s start with his first objective which was to create a reality that reflected who he is, in essence. (Not unlike an artist gazing at a subject and then painting it in a way that reflects his or her inner self and thought life.) As we all know, there are many different “creation” stories. All religions have one as do naturists and atheists. (Nearly all scientists believe there was a moment we call The Big Bang where an infinitesimally small thing … much smaller than the proton of an atom and containing all of the mass and energy that is now present in our universe … spontaneously exploded and everything now present in the Universe is the result. All of these scientists recognize peculiar patterns in our universe, some of which are explainable and some of which are not. Many scientists who deny the existence of a “supernatural” reality believe these patterns have no rational beginning or plan. Stuff just happens through often random action of particles and energy. Like life on earth. Some scientists are now subscribing to a theory that there was actually no beginning. The fact of the Big Bang was just another moment in an infinite timeline of expansion and contraction. Or, some believe that there are nearly an infinite number of universes … the multiverse theory … and we’re just one, nothing to write home about, in the face of that!) Anyway, these creation stories (or experiments) are designed to help us know where we came from and why we are here. I think deep down nearly all of us want to answer these two questions although many people avoid doing the work to get to that point.

The Judeo-Christian story is that God decided (notice the presence of rationality) to create this vast thing. The question is why? Well, as I stated above, if his objective was to make something that would reflect his essence, why did he need to do that? He was God, of course. What was missing that he needed to go about creating?

The Christian answer, in my opinion, can be contained in the two concepts of Love and Beauty. These two things are closely related and absolutely necessary for understanding the character of God, his plan for his creation, and the reality in which we live. Let me say this: There is not a belief system in human history that does not emphasize some aspect of these two concepts (set aside some very small extremist cults that promote sadistic and highly destructive behaviors).

The Christian concept of God is that he is a God of Love and Truth. While we can sort of grasp the love part, let’s not equate Beauty with Pretty. There is truth in beauty, with beauty pointing to the truth. (I recall memorizing the romanticist John Keats’ famous poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn in high school English, the final stanza of which says, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all you know on earth and all you need to know.”) The concept of Beauty is deep, just like Love, and has many dimensions. There is a thing we can equate with beauty via our five senses … think of how … and there is a thing we can equate with beauty that is extrasensory or metaphysical. It’s a thing of essence where patterns of meaning coalesce to where we are struck by profundity (deep insight) as in moments of overwhelming kindness or compassion, seemingly superhuman patience in the face of intense trial, or amazing grace where none is warranted. And, a natural byproduct of Truth is Justice. Perhaps for another day is the way that Truth cannot exist without Love and Love cannot exist without Truth (and how the concept of Free Will co-exists in this economy).

Where does all this come from? The Christian answer is that these are manifestations of the nature and character of God. And, his plan was to create a vast multidimensional and living artwork wherein these concepts would extend fully and indefinitely.

Here, we return to the question of “for what purpose?” Why did God want or need to do this? And the answer is not dissimilar to some of the reasons many of us want to become parents. If your answer falls somewhere in the neighborhood of (A) We are hardwired to create progeny and/or (B) We seek to share love and life with beings we created, then that’s a step toward understanding the well-worn phrase that we are “created in God’s image.”

At this point, it’s hard to avoid some fundamental Christian theology which is another way of saying understanding the message and meaning of the Christian perspective on all of reality. I recognize that most people are not all that interested in theology, at least on really technical levels. But nearly everyone even subconsciously formulates some sort of theological vision, even if it is to deny the existence of a “theos.” In our case, in this highly scientific modern world, the theology of God’s grand plan may be hard to stomach. Believe me, I’ve dissected it from countless angles, poking and prodding, trying to sift fact from fantasy. Try as I might, I keep coming back to the reality of a four chapter story, during which God’s main plan develops and unfolds. Later, our job is to dive into this story and figure out how each and all of these chapters best informs the meaning of our lives and what we are to do about it. You can take these four chapters as concrete or metaphorical. Most practicing Christians will recognize these chapters while the pieces will largely be unfamiliar to those less aware of basic Christian principles.

The story goes like this: First, God set in motion his Creation. We won’t get into the weeds about how long this took but suffice it to say that it was a thing of beauty, the apex being the creation of male and female, the human species. (Some modern naturists believe the apex of creation is overall nature … often described generally as the Earth so to speak … with humankind being just one among thousands of integrated equals. This is not the Christian worldview, understanding of course that an authentic Christian view holds the natural world in very high esteem!) He created humans in his image: To be alive, to love and enjoy the beauty of creation, sharing all of this with one another and with him. Setting aside for a brief moment the theology, can we acknowledge that we inherently seek love as expressed in relationship and that we find joy in things we consider beautiful? As I previously said, our job is to figure out God’s will or plan and part of that is to figure out how we are created as some kind of image of God (don’t take the word “image” completely literally but consider it metaphysically). As you know, we could go on forever dissecting this first chapter. But, leapfrogging through, we go to the second chapter.

While virtually all historical belief systems have some kind of creation story, at this point things diverge. The Judeo-Christian worldview entitles this second chapter The Fall. Now, almost everyone has heard of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, a tree, a piece of fruit and a snake. Some take this literally. Others take it metaphorically … a piece of God-inspired literature to make a point. I toss my hat in with the latter group but I think the differences are overrated and tend to keep us distracted from that main point. And the main point is that humans chose and continue to choose rejecting God. Start unpacking this and you’ll spend a lifetime figuring it out in detail. But the basic thing is the basic thing. We were created to live within God’s will for us and part of that “duty” is to keep our end of the bargain. We get to enjoy love, truth and beauty but it is “only through him that this is possible.” When we try to find truth and meaning apart from God or set ourselves above or apart from God, things fall apart. As the story begins to unfold, that byproduct of Love called Free Will, allows the possibility of making bad choices. We were comfortable and continue to be comfortable making bad choices. This sets up a two part problem. That is (A) We all have a basic innate sense of right and wrong, perhaps unknowing where that comes from and (B) we are unable to keep from doing things we know are wrong. Christians will say that this is because we keep pulling away from God, refusing to surrender to his will. One of the highlights on this reel is the myth/reality (I happen to believe it’s real) that one specific member of God’s created order of angels (supernatural beings which I absolutely believe exist) became incredibly self-absorbed. Being so self-absorbed, he began to wish he was God’s equal and should be in control. His biblical name is Lucifer which means “bearer of light,” presumably because of his majestic bearing. If there was ever a classic example of a rejection of God it was Lucifer and the result is worth considering. As the story goes, he shot for the moon and lost, buying into his own power and import separate from God and ended up paying the price. Kicked out of God’s presence, he and his followers become the anti-Gods, embracing characteristics diametrically opposite of God. They value destruction over creation, deceit and lies over truth, arrogance and self-absorption over humility, revenge over mercy and, ultimately, evil over good. These are the devils and demons in the supernatural realm if you believe in that. In the Genesis story in the Bible, Lucifer appears as a serpent whispering to Eve (with Adam standing passively by) that these two humans could have the power of God and don’t really need him. Once such a choice is made, the God-human contract or relationship is broken with all sorts of results. One of those results is a thing we call sin, an act or posture whereby we choose to avoid God’s will in the pursuit of our own. That’s it. People popularly think that sin is doing bad stuff in the eyes of God. If people think either there is no God and objective morality, then there is no Judgment of our behavior beyond how it is received in human society. But a God of Love and Truth, like any parent, wants what is best for us. Running away from home so we don’t have to live with certain rules designed to help us flourish is not the answer. There are all sorts of things we do and think that are inconsistent with God’s will for us. Put a little differently, these things don’t fit into God’s Plan. And, while we can come up with lists, suffice to say that the worst transgression we can demonstrate is to give in to Pride.

To summarize to this point. There is a God and he had a plan from the beginning. Part of his plan was to create a people in his image so that they could share love in relationship with him and with one another. Also, that they could flourish in those relationships, experiencing the many beauties in creation (both physical and metaphysical). But a love without a choice is not true love. And love requires trust. So, he created us with the ability to choose, knowing full well that we could always choose not to trust him, which we did and continue to do regularly, thereby separating ourselves from him with bad consequences to say the least. The Fall is that result. Now, this may come across as fantasy and mythology to some, certainly to people who for all sorts of reasons doubt the existence of such a God or are uncomfortable with a God described so far in this story. I understand. I was the poster child for this position for many many years. It just seemed too strange, too manufactured, too unrealistic. But, that all changed, which makes me either delusional or on to something that, while unrealistic, just may be completely true.

With that, I’ll end for now, picking up the last two chapters next time.