She drove home from Burbank last Saturday through the rain – the beautiful, blessed rain, washing over the rocks and mountains and trees and earth, and tears of gratitude came to her eyes. She thought, “The drought has been so long and difficult. The earth is protecting us, blessing us, nurturing us with its clouds and rain. Thank you earth and clouds and rain!” Her heart was filled with love for the earth as she thought about how it is a living thing and that she is part of it and it is part of her. How blessed she felt to be part of something bigger than herself!
To see the world through eyes that can perceive the interconnectedness of all things, including oneself as an integral part of all things is seeing the universe as One Thing, One Living Organism. Most of us will need to make an actual decision to see – and to think – this way, since few of us were taught this.
The great physicist Albert Einstein shared this view and saw himself as part of a great Whole. He wrote, “A human being is a part of the whole called by us as ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Jesus knew that we live in a universe of Oneness. He told all who had ears to hear that he was one with God. He knew that through this Whole Spirit of God, all of us are blessed. He taught the oneness of God and man, (Mark 12: 29-30), that God blesses us with good gifts (Matthew 7:11) and that these blessings are for everyone. (Matthew 5:45).
The hidden message for those who could hear it was that God is the essence and the activity of every form of life, not just people. When Jesus spoke of the Oneness of the Creator he meant that all forms of life are forms of the One Spirit; the earth, the sky, all of nature, all of ourselves, everyone.
What is your world view?
Is it that things never work out for you? That what can go wrong, will go wrong? That people cannot be trusted? That the world is against you?
There’s another world view we can choose. It’s a decision; the most elemental decision we can ever make. As Albert Einstein said, “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe.”
If we decide we live in a friendly universe, we will think and act differently. We will act as if we are part of everything and everything is part of us. We will become global citizens.
We will become pronoid. To be pronoid is to know and really feel that the universe is always conspiring to bless us and to bring to us that which fulfills us, even our heart’s desires, because we are part of it and it is part of us, because of its Oneness.
In Jeremiah 29:11 we read this same wisdom: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
At its core, being pronoid is loving God; God as yourself, as everyone else, as all of nature, as the universe itself. And the Bible tells us how things work out when we love God. “All things work together for good for those who love God.” –Romans 8:28
I invite you today to choose a larger view of God and to see yourself as part of God’s great Oneness. You will then become pronoid, for you will know that you cannot escape your good since it is everywhere, flowing to you from other people, and as in the case of last weekend’s rain, from the earth itself.
It takes practice to carry this decision out. We must practice it until we feel the truth of it. I invite you to affirm every morning as you start your day, “I am one with God and with all that is. Abundant blessings flow to me and through me everywhere I am, for God is everywhere I am.”
This will change your world, because you have chosen to see it as it really and essentially and eternally is. “There is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in all.” -Ephesians, 4: 4-6