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For Spiritual Laws of the Universe

13 June 2012  Hope Weekly

universe

SPIRITUAL LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE


Back in college, my chemistry, physics, and engineering professors didn’t just lecture us on the theories and equations that describe the invisible forces and elements of our universe. They sent us into the laboratory to prove it for ourselves. We saw the behaviors with our own eyes and touched them with our own hands. (Oh yeah, and wrote truckloads of lab reports with those same hands!) Though I’ve never seen air pressure, an electron, magnetic field, or gravity, I have faith that they will hold airplanes aloft, keep my lights working, make my compass point north, and prevent me from floating off into space.

The Hebrew writer penned, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (Heb 11:1) Faith is nothing more than recognizing and relying on the real but invisible forces of the universe. Some of those are spiritual. They are no less laws and principles of the universe, but they are spiritual… not physical.

Some of God’s commands seem to be arbitrary or symbolic. I have no problems with God setting standards as he sees fit. After all, he is God and I’m not.

On the other hand, lots of things God tells us are very practical. They seem to transcend commandments and stand on their own as descriptions of how the universe works. Even non-Judeo/Christians recognize how reliable these principles are. I think of these as spiritual laws of the universe.

For instance, Jesus’ principle of “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you,” (Lk 6:38) is also expressed in the Eastern mystic notion of karma, and in secular business schools as the Law of Reciprocity. It goes beyond just a command. It’s an expression of a law of the universe that our choices and actions haunt or reward us far beyond the present moment. We can’t always trace how it happens, but it always seems to work out that way.

Just like in the physical universe, faith allows us to apply these spiritual laws and behaviors.

The opposite of faith is insisting that these laws simply don’t exist. The reckless person runs amuck, claiming, “I can do whatever I like until someone stops me!” The timid person – no less faithless – does nothing, chanting the victim’s creed, “I can’t!” Both expose themselves to unnecessary pain because they refuse to cooperate with the universe and how it really works.

Faith like a mustard seed – a tiny speck of willingness to explore the unseen – is all it takes to begin. (Lk 17:6) From that seed grows a sprig, then a sapling, and then a tree of practical spirituality.

Mike Pulley

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