What Gravity Tells Us of Faith
written by: Rev. Dr. Scott Paczkowski
“But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. ”
Some people stand behind the belief that reason is obvious and reality is something understandable to all people. This simply isn’t true. Any two people can see the same event and use proper reason, and still witness a different reality. Some people will see reality just slightly different, while others see their realities in vastly different ways. Knowing we cannot totally trust our individual view of reality, helps us empathize with others and remain open to truth behind our view of reality.
In an article in the periodical, “Human Parts,” an unnamed writer offers us assistance in the perplexing study of human reality. The writer points out, “Reality itself didn’t change one bit as a result of Newton’s discoveries. The world was always governed by gravity, whether we knew about it or not.” The writer continues, “In actuality, reality is never strange. The only reason it appears to be is because we interact with it through the lens of human consciousness, which itself has its own predispositions and attitudes. We view reality with certain expectations, many of which are built over time by personal experience and our logical institutions.”
What the writer attempts to illustrate is our human need to fit reason into our limited reality. What God attempts to do is expand our reality. Reason that reduces reality to what we can envision within our small mind keeps the universe controlled, but extraordinarily limited and thus unreasonable. When we are not able or willing to attempt experiences beyond our present reality, the writer says we will express “misplaced certainty.”
The Scribes and Pharisees, Pilate and the Caesars, were not evil. Their views of life were skewed by their limited reality which produced misplaced certainty. One of the great gifts God provides is an expanded view of reality. We are not limited by the reason we can experience only with our five senses. We are able to grasp reality beyond our present situation. In the same way gravity occurred before Newton understood it, God’s exists and is present in our reality, whether or not we recognize it yet. Today, seek to remain open to the existence of God and trust that reality is larger than our personal experience.
