How often do you reflect upon the fact, the truth, that you are a unique expression of God in the world, that you reveal to the world an aspect of God that no one else can or will reveal?  That you are unique, not just as a human being, but as an individual within the species?  How often do you reflect upon the fact that every other living being reveals something of God that only that person can reveal?

Then, having reflected on this, we see the necessity of EVERY created being, because all together they reveal more and more of God.  There is no plan that we all be alike!  There is no desire that we imitate each other!  The Divine plan is that each created being become what it is meant to be and thus to reveal something new about God.  Then as we gather together, free to be who we are, we can celebrate the God that comes to life in us, in our community.

A tree is all it is meant to be, a tree. But even every tree is different from every other. A rock is what it is meant to be. Are you? Are you free to be who you are? . . . another thought to consider as part of the “Who am I? “ question. Am I really who I am?  Am I in touch with the real desires of my heart?  Am I growing into the person I am meant to be, I was created to be?  Am I honoring my differences? Am I honoring the unique revelation of God that I am?

And also, how am I partaking in the on-going creative emerging of the universe?  What is my part in the creating of the universe?  Or in other words, how am I helping Jesus in bringing about the Kingdom?

How does what I do affect the universe? The example of 9/11 tells us one way that humans affect the world. But there are other examples. We are all aware of the ecological crises brought about by the careless use of the environment, the destruction of the rain forests etc.  But it is not just the destruction of the planet that is the effect of the human’s existence.  Do we have a purpose within the larger web of  life?  If so, what is it?  Too often we think only in human terms, of how to make things better for us. We don’t wonder how we are meant to contribute to life as a whole.  The ancient peoples, the Anasazi, believed that they needed to conduct their dances and ceremonies in order to maintain balance in the universe.  They believed that if they neglected this duty, not only they but countless other forms of life would suffer. We think them crazy.  But is there a truth that we are missing?  In the October 2004 issue of National Geographic Magazine there is an article about people who live like that today, and a Dr Dave Hilton, Emory University Chaplain, says “I saw things there (in Africa) – what we would call miraculous healings – that didn’t fit with what I was taught in medical school, but the Africans had faith because they had never been taught such things were impossible. I learned that you don’t have to see to believe. You have to believe to see.” (Mind of God p.83)

So, what is our real purpose in life?  Who are you? What did the universe have in mind in spending 14 billion years of work to bring you to be here now?  New research is helping us recognize that perhaps we are part of this living, generative field – that we influence it as it influences us.