Your God? My God? Our God? No God?

Want to ignite a lively and spirited conversation with another individual or a group of people?  Start talking about God.  Perhaps one of the most debated, most mysterious, and most widely misunderstood topics of all time revolves around who God is, what God is, where God is, and what God wants.  And many conversations, as well-intentioned and even like-minded as they may be, have a difficult time sustaining themselves in light of the differences that inevitably arise.

So I would like to open the conversation up to all of you and invite you to share your thoughts and ideas and perspectives surrounding God.  Your God.  My God.  Our God.  No God.  This is not an exercise in making anyone wrong or making anyone right, but rather an opportunity to share and explore what is true for you.  Why do you have those deeply held beliefs?  Where do they originate?  How have they changed throughout the course of your life?  Are your understandings open to adaptation or change?  Or are they firmly etched into the part of you which drives your thoughts and choices?  Do you hold a set of beliefs as true now which at an earlier time in your life you did not?  Why is that?  What caused you to change?

I often hear people talking about “my God” or “your God,” and it causes me to pause and want to know more about that.    I also on occasion hear others who say there is no God.  I want to know more about that, too.  How is it that there are so many diverse and deeply held beliefs about God?  If it has taken years and years for humanity to splinter off into so many unique ideologies, where does it go from here?   Further separation?   Reunification?

Could it be that the greatest opportunity for all of us to cohabitate more peacefully in our world might begin by just creating a space for larger understandings to grow into?  Might it be that our own innate desire to be heard might only truly occur when we allow ourselves to hear someone else?   Do you oftentimes feel like you are talking but nobody is listening?

If somebody was listening — intently listening — to your thoughts about God, what would you say?

I invite you to share them here.

(Lisa McCormack is a Feature Editor at The Global Conversation and lives in Orlando, Florida.  To connect with Lisa, please e-mail her at Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com.)