The Verb of God

I read a really interesting book once, titled “God is a Verb”, by David Cooper. The book was thought-provoking, and I learned a good deal from it. It’s the title, though, that’s hung with me, and what my mind makes of the title. I got to thinking back on this title while I was writing this recent article on career paths. (Or is it careen?)

Though not an expert, I see a noun as a thing, and a verb as an action. Neil’s oversimplified view of the world…

The thing that really intrigued me at the time about the concept of seeing G-d as a verb was how universal the concept was, if we could get our heads around it.

Throughout history, religion is right up there on top of the list of things we make war over and hurt people over. Sad but true. Often, this happens because we allow religion to become so entwined with government that religion becomes nothing more than a tool of oppression used by the government. The dark years of The Inquisition and the religious wars in Europe were relatively recent memories when we were smart enough to demand a separation between religion and government when we put our constitution together.

Think back to the holy wars that have been waged throughout history. The sort of “jihad” where religious zealots kill lots of people because they think God wants them to. It’s happening in the world today, and you can see it throughout both recorded history and recorded myth.

G-d wants you to kill people. Really? Don’t most of us find this a little difficult to reconcile? For those who do believe in G-d in some way or anot

her, our deepest understanding of the concept and reality of G-d revolts at the notion that He/She/It would demand evil and killing. For those who don’t believe anything like god exists, such notions simply reinforce our inability to see the possibility.

I suspect much of this difficulty happens because our brains (today and historically) want to turn G-d into a thing (a noun), like a king or a dictator. What would happen if instead, we saw G-d as the verb – the action in the equation? After all, great spiritual teachers of all traditions have taught that G-d is in each of us. So long as we think of G-d as a thing, then this sounds a lot like we’re “possessed”, but if G-d is action, then this makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it?

If we saw G-d as a verb, as the action that can come from us, we might spend a little less time worrying about whether he/she/it is male or female, or has dark curly hair or long blond hair. We might worry less about what “orders” we receive from whoever happens to be claiming to be the voice of G-d at this particular time, and start focusing more on how we can release G-d into the world around us through our actions.

Happy God-ing!