A Ramble About Change and Perception

It is a stated fact that God Himself doesn't change. Some theologians or would be theologians would probably debate this, but He doesn't. He says as much within Sacred Scripture "I am the Lord, I do not change, therefore you are not consumed O sons of Jacob."

Think about what this means for a minute. God Himself is static. He doesn't move. Change happens around Him, within Him, and through Him. But He Himself remains motionless, still, and we and the flow of time move and change along His quiet surface like the ripples over a pond. God doesn't move through time. Time moves through God. God doesn't move through space, space moves through Him. This is the virtue and consequence of true omnipresence. All places, all times, all dimensions, everywhere there is a where when and how simultaneously.

He doesn't present one version of Himself to one group of people, and another version to a different group of people. But the funny thing about people, is that while God Himself doesn't change, they do. People are constantly in flux, never the exact same person from one minute to the next. With every new experience, change occurs. With every new thought, new idea, new choice the person dies and is reborn remembering everything, or much of everything, which happened before but with a new, or at least altered, understanding of how to interpret it, no matter how small the change may be.

So, God Himself doesn't change, but people do; and different people interpret their experiences of life, other people, and even God differently depending on their perception. Some people perceive God as harsh and judgmental; others perceive Him as gentle and loving. God Himself remains motionless.

God Himself remains motionless, but we project motion onto Him. We perceive motion in Him because we ourselves are moving. Just as we perceive motion in the Sun when it rises and sets, but in reality it is the earth which is, and consequently ourselves who are, in motion around the Sun which, relative to us, remains stationery.

So, God remains stationary, but we perceive Him in motion. We project our own expectations, good or bad, fair or unfair, onto Him. We project our figures of authority, figures of abuse, father figures, mother figures, friendly and enemy figures onto Him depending on what is in the forefront of our minds, or buried deep in our subconscious. We get angry when He doesn't act on what we want, but then ignore Him when He permits events to give us what we need and more often than we want to admit, we curse Him for it.

In our life we often project our idea of what He is supposed to be onto Him, and rarely bother to slow down enough to know Him as He is. Often, as with other people, we don't really care about who He is and what He is like, we only care about what we think about Him and what our perception of Him is. We do this often without thinking just because it is how we interact with everybody. Often our perception of a person is formed by who they appeared to be in the past, and has little to do with who they actually are right now, which is always going to be at least slightly different from who they were five minutes ago.

Our biggest problem when knowing God is that He doesn't change, but we do. Our perceptions of Him change and so we perceive that He is changing when in fact it is we who are changing through the motion and experience of life. So one day we may perceive Him as judgmental and harsh, and another we perceive Him as loving and kind. He has not changed, but our understanding and perception of Him has.

The first rule of getting to know someone is to not form any preconceptions, or to lose one's preconceptions, and then to go and spend time with them and learn from them who they are. This applies also to God. We move through time, and as we move through time we encounter Him through every point in time in His stillness which we perceive as motion because we are in motion. Therefore in order to truly know Him as He is we ourselves must slow down as be still as He is still. As we move through Him He reveals Himself if only we will pay attention.

God is love in everything He is and does, but we will only experience this if we drop our own perceptions, be still, and get to know Him. He is not harsh and judgmental one minute and kind and loving the next, we are. He does not wish some saved and some damned, we do. He does not send some to heaven and some to hell. We ourselves dwell in either place right now by our own choices, and only through our motion through Him responding to His Grace do we move from hell to heaven here and now, and later on.

Jesus said that "the one who saves his psyche will destroy it, the one who destroys his psyche for My sake will save it," (literally what the Greek says). In order to know God, which is our salvation here and now, we must put aside our own projections, perceptions, thoughts, and ideas and just spend time with Him on His terms. Otherwise we attempt to worship only those same ideas, thoughts, and perceptions of what He is like, and not He Himself. This is little different from the idolatry which was so condemned by Him in the Old Testament. He doesn't want us to speculate about Him, he wants us to know Him. He doesn't want us bowing down to a concept we have of Him, He wants us to spend time with Him as He truly is. Idols don't have to be made of wood or stone, they are far more often made of feelings, images, and memories amalgamated together into something that we call God and either love or fear, revere or mock. But such idols are still not Him, and like the Israelites in the Old Testament, He commands that they be torn down and we know Him as He is.

God remains stationary as we move through Him. Are we paying attention to where we are along the way?