“You don’t know God, you experience God.”
— A share at the Akron Group in Victoria
This was one for the notebook—what a great insight. We cannot know God. But we can experience Him.
Thank goodness, Bill did not say, “God, as we know Him.” He said, “God, as we understood Him.”
Using the word ‘understood’ Bill points us to our experience with God, rather than our theories about God.
My connection with God is experiential, not intellectual. When I remember this, I avoid the volumes of debate and discussion that has had a destructive force in other spiritual movements. Arguments about the nature and being of God divide rather than unite. What unites us in the Fellowship is a shared experience of a Higher Power in our lives. That is something upon which we can all agree.
By focusing on the experience of God rather than knowledge of God, we focus on our stories. And no one can argue with stories. When working with sponsees, stories are much better than theories. They cannot argue with stories. What can they say? “That’s not what happened.” Stories are the key, and stories are our experiences, not our theories.
When we share our stories of how a Power higher than ourselves has worked in our lives, we are on the same page. I might be puzzled by someone talking about how “God finds parking spaces on demand.” But even though I am puzzled by someone whose Higher Power is involved in traffic management, I can identify with their connection to a Power. And see in the story a relationship that is meaningful and oddly tangible. Someone who relies on a Power to find them a parking space has found the same magic that I have seen in my connection with God. Our stories are the same; a Power higher than ourselves has affected our ideas, attitudes and perceptions.
Because we are sharing our stories, I can identify with agnostics and atheists about spiritual values. Spiritual means ‘not physical.’ So, I can share the presence and flow of God as I have experienced Him and relate to an atheist who experiences the flow and power of the universe. We cannot agree on theories, but we can share our stories.
An atheist AA at our downtown meeting and I have been discussing this matter. I realize that over my time working the Steps, my sense of the spiritual has evolved and converged with an atheist’s views of the universe. Our theories have not converged, but our stories have.
Particularly in these perilous times, our stories of remaining calm despite crisis are living examples of our experience of God.
Leave a Reply