Onward into healing

The notion of an all-powerful God who gives up His power to create the world isn't new, of course. A recent version comes from Hans Jonas, Jewish-German philosopher, who wrestled with the question how an all-powerful, caring God could have let Auschwitz happen. He concluded that God didn't intervene because He couldn't. God creates the world, says Jonas, by completely handing Himself over to its unfolding. His power is what fuels and sustains the process of life, and He suffers with life as life runs its course. His only "plan" is to be with His creation as it staggers through the vagaries of evolution, of becoming and dying.

From a Christian perspective, this view is appealing, for it parallels the traditional teaching on Jesus as God giving up His power to take birth, and emptying Himself during his ministry and his death on the cross. (And Jesus did say: "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father." We may not have taken that seriously enough.)

The problem with this view, as with all attempts at understanding God, is that it still doesn't quite capture all the experiences of God one can have. Sometimes people do feel that God actively intervenes in their life, restoring them to grace. Sometimes the splendor of a simple sunset or the vivid spiritedness of the sky speaks of more than notions like those above can hold. 

I am one of those people. I do believe that God works for healing in the world. I feel I am being healed and guided. I do not know how or where, but I can't deny the healing or the guidance.

I have to conclude that God's power isn't lost to the world, only that it works in different ways than we usually think of when we speak of power.

Maybe speaking, then, isn't the best way to find God.

We shall see.