How far away is God, anyway?
Note: coinciding with the release of “7 Steps Toward a More Beautiful Story of Faith”, this is the sixth of seven posts expanding on those steps. Subscribe and receive this free resource.
Step 6: Stop thinking God is “up there” or “out there”. Start believing God is right here right now.
OK pop quiz. Where is God?
In heaven
In space
On earth
In my cells
All of the above
To the people who wrote the Bible, the organization of the universe was quite simple. There was “down here”, “up there” and “down there”. (Click here for a picture and a more detailed explanation of the ancient cosmology.)
“Up there” was where the sun made its daily march across the sky.
“Up there” was where the moon and stars shone, perhaps through tiny holes in the sky.
“Up there” was also where God resided on a throne in his kingdom.
“Down here” was where everything lived, on a flat earth with deadly oceans on the sides of it.
“Down here” was where Jesus came from “up there”.
“Down here” was the area of the world we now call the middle-east, and a bit of Africa.
“Down there” was a place literally under “down here”.
“Down there” was where the souls of dead people resided in a place the Jews called “Sheol”.
“Down there” was where the devil and all his angels resided, perhaps tormenting the souls of humans who hadn’t met God’s standard.
There was no solar system. There were no galaxies. There were no billions and billions of miles of empty space in all directions outside the atmosphere of a spherical planet. There was just this place, and it was the center of God’s attention and activity.
God was out there, somewhere, up there somewhere, occasionally breaking in and surprising people with miracles. In the New Testament, God came near and walked around on the flat earth in the area we now call the Middle East for three decades, then went back “up into heaven” (see the end of Luke’s gospel and the beginning of Acts). Somehow God’s Spirit entered into people who received or were given God’s Spirit after Jesus went “up” into heaven.
But now…
Not just now, but since Copernicus 500 years ago and especially since Galileo 400 years ago, we know better. There is no “up” and “down” from a rotating spherical planet that is part of a solar system in a small galaxy among billions of galaxies in a rapidly expanding universe. If God is “up there” and the devil is “down there”, where exactly are those places?
I’m not a scientist. At all. I never took chemistry or physics in high school or college. I must have been too busy in choir classes. But in my very very limited understanding of quantum physics I’ve had my mind blown a few times. Quantum physics is the study of how the smallest bits of matter operate. Not just molecules, or atoms, but even smaller. The tiniest little bits of atoms with names like alpha particles, beta particles and quarks. At the heart of these tiniest of parts of matter scientists find qualities of waves and of particles. And they contain energy. OK that is as far as I’m going explaining quantum physics because I’m sure I’ve already oversimplified and messed up in my descriptions.
But here’s the thing. At the core of the tiniest bits of everything there is an energy field. Now this may sound very woo-woo to people like me who spent their entire life in Christian circles, because “energy” was a very New Age topic. No matter, we’ve all got to ask ourselves, “Where does that energy come from?”
In my VERY limited understanding of quantum physics I’ve come to the conclusion scientists don’t really know the answer to that question. Here’s a possible answer. Maybe that energy is the power and presence of God, the Creator, holding everything in the universe together, and without which nothing would exist at all.
If so, then where is God? Is God “up there”? Do we need to reach out to try and find God? Or is God right here right now? I meditate regularly on the amazing truth that every cell in my body is animated with the energy of God. And if God is energizing every subatomic particle of me and you, if it is true that without that energy nothing would hold together, then God is never far away. In fact God is so intimately part of me that I can never ever get away from God. I can’t exist without God. And neither can you.
And this truth - that God is not far away and separate from us, but intimately involved in every bit of the universe, is good news. And I believe it’s a launching pad into a more beautiful story of faith.
Step 1 - Lean into your doubts
Step 2 - Evaluate the fruit of your spiritual practices
Step 3 - Sing less worship songs. Serve more people in need.
Step 5: Write down 3 things you are grateful for every day for 21 days. Then keep going.