We live and then we die. Does it matter if God exists?

[A few words to preface this post:  There is no way I can begin to describe the meeting/worship service I attended this morning.  My goal is then to simply share some of the words I heard and the thoughts they brought to mind.]

I awoke this morning with another Sunday before me to seek Sabbatical living per my Lenten goal.  I must confess that I hadn't yet decided where to worship this morning.  As I still haven't found a congregation that I really feel at home in Bristol, I've gotten into a habit of church-hopping which consists of me waking up on Sunday and choosing where to go then and there.  Something about the morning (another beautiful Spring matin), the sun bursting through the slit of my window shades and a bouquet of daffodils sitting on my dresser that spoke of the need to remain in this joyous Sabbath quiet and the choice was made- to the community Quaker meeting.  Choosing to attend the Quaker service always takes a little commitment, as it takes a while to get to the closest meeting house and it is always a practice of spiritual discipline.  So as I walked the mile and a half to the meeting house, I tried to prepare my spirit to enter into the deeper silence and peace of the gathering.  

By now you are probably wondering what the title of this post has to do with any of this and you may even be thinking I must be a little insane, but those were the words that framed the "ministries" shared at the meeting this week.  And they just opened a flood of discourse (well a flood by Quaker standards at least [smile]).  Since I'm not sure exactly how to frame all that was said or think I will be able to remember all the beautiful insights, what follows are just some statements that were made throughout the meeting and at the end the words I felt guided by the divine unifying Spirit to remember.  Hope you will find them challenging as I did and join in the discussion.

• Understanding that I, like all other humans, am capable of doing good for others and not and have the potential for great intuitiveness and imagination, I find I better understand Christ’s command to love your neighbor as yourself.

• Thinking in terms of physics, God is the potential and we are the current that combined creates power. 

• Our statement of belief in God doesn’t effect the exisitence of a divine being. It only falls to us to trust in God. 

• "This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to anyone who asks, stand up for the stupid and the crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God." This is the best definition of being a Quaker that I know and they are the words of Walt Whitman

Silently now I wait for thy. 

Ready my God your will to see. 

Open my eyes illumine me, Spirit divine. 

Just, Margaret