When we look out at the world sometimes, we can’t help but feel a sense of despair. The recent tragedy in Norway is just one example that challenges our sense of God. If God is all Power and all Love, how do awful things happen?

We have to start with our understanding of God. We teach that God is the only Presence and Power in the Universe. We teach that God is Love Itself. So would Love Itself let awful things happen? The answer is an unsettling, ‘Yes,’ followed quickly by an ‘and…’ 

On the ‘Yes’:

God is Love. Love is an emanating and allowing power. It is always present, indiscriminate, much like the light of the sun. We can choose to receive light and transform its energy into useful activity or we can hide in the cold darkness of a cave and refuse it. In either case, the sun’s light shines on all alike with equal intention. God as Light and Love is always there, in every situation, in creation and destruction. Our human mind, which believes it is separate from God, wants God to stop bad things from happening and it wants the Love of God to be on our side and not on the side of our enemies or ‘the bad people.’ It wants God’s love to be withheld from those we deem as undeserving. We think we want the hurtful people to suffer, especially the really hurtful ones that perpetrate massacres or famines or who hurt us directly. But just as the Light and Love of God pours into the victims of tragedies, it also pours with equal intention into the hearts of the perpetrators. God is Infinite Love, everywhere present, unconditionally loving each of us, no matter what.  No one is turned away. In Matthew 5:45 Jesus describes God like this: "For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." Try to wrap your mind around that. If you can, then the next logical mind-wrapping to do is to recognize that as Image and Likeness of God, we are called to love with the same unconditional, boundless capacity as God.

Which brings us to the ‘and.’ Yes, Love does let bad things happen and Love is the transforming Power that works within us to change our world into the all-Good world that it is intended to be. Love wants to be expressed fully in the physical and we are the ones to do it.

When we despair over world events, our unsettled feelings must be noted. They uncomfortably awaken us to our deep desire to manifest our world differently. When we take note, they nudge us into action. We must look for our own opportunities to be in action toward a better world.

As Image and Likeness of God, we are the portals for Divine Light to make Itself known. We are the creators here. The infinite, invisible realm, the Source of all Divine ideas, is Perfect and Whole. It is pure potential. Our physical world holds the possibility of Perfection and Wholeness too.  We are the ones with the hearts, hands and feet to bring Perfection and Wholeness into being. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” We are the Light bearers.

That is why we join together as spiritual community - to support each other in becoming Light bearers. When we live our Truth, when we are authentic Image-and-Likeness-of-God beings, we are the Light of God and the transforming Power of Love. We are here to move God’s divine plan into manifestation – to create a Good world, a God world. 

When we look upon the tragic events in our world, we must allow our despair to be deeply felt, allow it to sink in and allow it to move us into action. But we must also transform our despair into the power of Love. We have a BIG GAME to play on this earth. Every moment of our life is precious. Every moment presents an opportunity to love with unconditional boundlessness, just as God loves.

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” John 4:7