In the beginning, there was a Singularity of potential hovering between being and nothingness. Unaware that its own eternal presence refuted the possibility of the latter, Potential gestated.
In that unfolding forever, awareness of being timelessly ripens until suddenly, realizing the enormous possibilities within, Potential explodes into cosmic self-awareness, shattering into the infinite bits of the multiverse, filling everything with potential.
Once aware, Potential invents, beginning with the basic building blocks of creation: fermions and bosons, the invisible Legos of the material universe. From these elementary particles, Potential self assembles into more complex structures like stars, which are themselves cosmic wombs birthing even more compound structures. Including the organization of the elements into forms supporting evolving, living creatures who experience joy and sorrow, whom themselves invent new tools and great civilizations, mimicking the tremendous Creative Singularity of Potential whence we all originate.
Since the creation of spacetime and the formation of the fundamental laws of the multiverse, the Conscious Universe—God—has been diversifying into anything and everything it can imagine. From the earliest subatomic particles to complex, sentient creatures like humans; from giant gas ball planets to microscopic organisms that live in environments at the depths of the ocean that are so hot, it implies there is life strewn about the universe thriving in what we would consider unlivable environments.
What began as a powerfully condensed singularity of unrealized potential has evolved into the conscious substrate of spacetime, the foundation of all matter across dimensions and realities. God experiences the fullness of Potential through every one of us. God’s potential fills each person on this planet. And because God is endlessly creative, God is present in every skin color, sexuality, and gender identity, regardless of our religion, favorite fried chicken joint, sports team, car, or curry.
Everyone is a glorious aspect of God’s singular creative Spirit because now that God knows what it means to be, God wants to be everything.
Rumi wrote, “You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling, so don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly.”
Humanity is filled with God’s Potential but so far we’ve been unable (or unwilling) to let it motivate us the way it fuels the multiverse. We live in an endlessly creative reality, yet we seem intent on destruction. Even to build something we first tear something else down — a tree, a mountain, an entire class of people.
We exist because a universe of unfulfilled potential became self-aware. We are imbued with a spark of that same potential, an idea we’ve been considering for a very long time — so long, that it begins one of our most ancient accounts of creation.
Genesis 1:1–5 (CEB)
When God began to create the heavens and the earth — the earth was without shape or form, it was dark over the deep sea, and God’s wind swept over the waters — God said, “Let there be light.” And so light appeared. God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. God named the light Day and the darkness Night. There was evening and there was morning: the first day.
Our spiritual ancestors imagined the time before time as an infinite ocean of potential in the vast darkness of space. Then, in the liminal expanse of unrealized potential, God awakens and floods reality with light.
A-ha!” the universe exclaims, “I AM! Let there be light!” And the universe is flooded with photons, particles of light that form into waves washing over reality, setting in motion a series of creative events that continue today.
Once awakened, God, the Conscious Universe, the Great Eternal Spirit, never stops becoming, never stops experiencing every visceral moment of physical existence: from sex to sacrament to supernova. God is a willing participant in everything.
God in everything, as Francis and Clare of Assisi realized, has profound implications. It means God delights in my triumphs and shares my frustrations, sorrows, and pain. God in everything also means I must consider what God is doing as part of people I don’t understand, perhaps even as people I don’t like very much. How can I despise someone if I understand God is inherently part of their being? How can I blame God for wanting to experience everything, even the things I don’t comprehend or the people I don’t like?
I cannot.
If God is fulfilling every bit of God’s potential, then we have to accept the very difficult idea that sometimes it will appear to beings like us with an extremely limited understanding of the cosmos, as if God is acting badly. We want to believe that the people holding the world back from a more equitable, cooperative, and compassionate civilization are unrepresentative of God, are evil. But as soon as we think we’re full of God and someone else isn’t, well, it’s then we’re full of something all right, but it sure ain’t God.
14 billion years after first awakening, Potential continues to realize itself within the lifeforms it has created, beings like you and me, just awakening to our responsibility as hosts of God’s goodness, grace, and unconditional love. Potential continuously, endlessly creates, adapts, and evolves. When I deeply think about that idea it drops me to my knees in humble awe, because it means everything is full of God potential!
What will you do with yours?
