Random Acts of Godness:
Kindness, Laughter, Wonder, Courage, and Honesty
Random acts of kindness are moments in which God is present in a momentary way. We experience God in the act of kindness, as given by one person to another and as received by that person. The agency belongs to God and to the person. It is divine immanence in the moment and as the moment. God is small not large, temporary not permanent, and, in the case of kindness, wonderfully human. Process theologians call it an "incarnation" of God in the world. Even if you don't believe in God, you can appreciate the holiness in a moment of kindness. There's a kind of beauty in it that elicits awe and wonder. The holiness is not frightening. It is small and graceful, like a bubble that floats through the air: both human and divine. It bubbles up, and you are grateful. It is God godding.
Random acts of kindness are not the only acts in which God bubbles up. God is present in moments of laughter, wonder, courage, honesty, and beauty. The Spiritual Alphabet on the "spirituality" page of the Cobb Institute, borrowed from Spirituality and Practice, lists 37 forms of Godness. See the slideshow below for all 37, and then add some of your own.
Sometimes the Godness lasts only for a moment. It is a moment of Godness. And sometimes it lasts longer, as when you gaze at a sunset for, say, five minutes and just can't turn your head away. Godness does not have to be permanent to be valuable. If we spend our lives looking for something that lasts forever, we will miss the Godness.
A primary practice of Process Spirituality is to delight in Godness, without expecting permanence, and then to let it go when it passes away. The letting go is a form of Godness, too. Remembered moments of Godness can be as beautiful as present moments of Godness, even as we let them go. Without the letting go we cannot enjoy the memory. In the house of God-moments there are many rooms.
- Jay McDaniel
Random acts of kindness are not the only acts in which God bubbles up. God is present in moments of laughter, wonder, courage, honesty, and beauty. The Spiritual Alphabet on the "spirituality" page of the Cobb Institute, borrowed from Spirituality and Practice, lists 37 forms of Godness. See the slideshow below for all 37, and then add some of your own.
Sometimes the Godness lasts only for a moment. It is a moment of Godness. And sometimes it lasts longer, as when you gaze at a sunset for, say, five minutes and just can't turn your head away. Godness does not have to be permanent to be valuable. If we spend our lives looking for something that lasts forever, we will miss the Godness.
A primary practice of Process Spirituality is to delight in Godness, without expecting permanence, and then to let it go when it passes away. The letting go is a form of Godness, too. Remembered moments of Godness can be as beautiful as present moments of Godness, even as we let them go. Without the letting go we cannot enjoy the memory. In the house of God-moments there are many rooms.
- Jay McDaniel
Process and Spirituality Presentation by Jared Morningstar