GOD AS “ONE WHO CAN SET THE ULTIMATE BOUNDARY .”

As I sat on my couch in the upper room of my inner self, trying to slough off those tendencies to control the boundaries of who I think God is, and ultimately who I am, the concept of boundaries crept into my consciousness. That one word, “boundaries,” led to the following observations, which I now share with you.

In and of itself, this isolated word just suggests limitations, among many considerations. When I use the word as part of my Lectio Divina prayer, all I think about is that word, not what it means.

Here are some ragged, unblemished ideas in no particular order of importance.

• God sets boundaries for others based on the image and likeness of the one who created them.

• God had to wait until humanity was ready to have boundaries. The void period was from Adam and Eve, prototypes of what happens when humans choose to deny God’s boundaries in favor of setting up their own.
• Personal boundaries are defined by the limits of each individual. What we choose is who we are.
• I am aware of three unresolved longings that are still in the process of maturation. They are: What do I need to do to know more about what it means to be at that next level of my evolution? God is the ultimate setting of boundaries in the physical universe (matter), then in the mental universe, and finally, the boundaries of spirituality, which are limitations on behavior needed to move to the next level of humanity. Secondly, what does it mean to love with all my heart and strength? And, finally, at each level of evolution, we humans grow, individually and collectively, in consciousness and complexity within the boundaries of our birth and death.
• I find it compelling that these three unresolved longings of my being fully human correspond to the three attributes of who God is, or the image and likeness of the boundary that has no boundaries.
• God gifts us with reason and the freedom to choose what we think are boundaries.
• Sometimes others impose their boundaries on us, and we are free to choose, but our choices are limited by the human interpretation of a few.
• I am the ultimate anvil on which the truth of what is real is forged.
• God sets boundaries for humanity as outlined in the Genesis Principle, as found in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 2 and 3. Humanity is not able to self-administer and manage behaviors such as sexuality or pride, using just human experiences and examples. God gave us the way to not just survive the effects of original sin, ones that cause us to be fuzzy wuzzie when it comes to what is true about how to move to that next level of human evolution.
• If God permeated all reality with boundaries, and I am a part of that existence, then what seems like a limitation to my human development is actually the only way I can move forward in complexity and consciousness. In the Old Testament, God set those boundaries (e.g., the Ten Commandments and prescriptions of the Law) for individuals to be able to be fully human and not be a captive of original sin. The next phase of maturation is the Christ Principle, where God SHOWS everyone what it means to keep the Law. The third phrase is the Principle of Truth, where the Holy Spirit provides each individual and gatherings of individuals to intimately share in the very energy of God as each one is capable with Christ as our mentor and mediator.
• Humans are not free to do whatever they want, yet, ironically, freedom is the only gift we can give another person.
• God gave us boundaries to human evolution that have a beginning but no ending.

If the concept of God as the absence of boundaries is of interest to you. I am going to take this idea and apply it in my next blog on sexuality, sinfulness, and original sin.

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