Put your concerns in a larger light. Dare to grow. Science stretches your mind, faith expands your spirit

Every now and then it’s helpful to be reminded how small we are. It happened to me yesterday when someone posted on my Facebook page a picture of the universe, with a description of how earth (so large I’ll never experience but a tiny piece of it), resides in our solar system, (which is 18.6 trillion miles across, or 3 light years), and how many other solar systems there are in the universe, (3,916 solar systems within our Milky Way galaxy), and the observable universe is estimated to have between 100 billion and 2 trillion galaxies. 

It’s mind-boggling! It’s hard to get your mind around those figures. But somehow it helps put our wants, troubles and concerns in a larger light. And maybe, just maybe, it helps us focus on things that matter in the larger scheme of things. Maybe it makes us realize our God might be too small, our faith too limited, and the way we live our life too self-centered.

Or maybe it does just the opposite. Maybe a recognition of the immensity of the universe makes people feel so tiny and insecure, they have to make up for it by pretending to be important. 

Or maybe it gives a person the freedom to question their assumed reality. After all, with the immensity of the unknown and the limitations of humankind, what dimensions of existence still need to be understood and explored. 

What we are told is there are at least 11 dimensions to life and we only live in three of them; length, width and height. Then there is time, a fourth dimension. But perhaps there is something more, something real all around us we miss. 

I’ve discovered the writing of Anne Tyler. Of her 19 novels, I recently finished reading a third novel of hers, “The Beginner’s Goodbye.” This is a story of a man who loses his wife in mid-life, when a tree falls on their sunporch and kills her. Her husband works at publishing books for “beginners,” (“Beginning to Cook,” “Beginning to Dine Out,” “Beginning Childbirth,” etc.). He’s a beginner at dealing with his loss.

He is helped by her return. He will see her on the street, in the market, at their house. She is not very verbal, but expresses the same sense of self-confidence and individuality she always expressed in their marriage. He is comforted by her presence, by those few moments of her appearances, and he longs for more. Gradually, over time, he is able to say goodbye.

The story reminded me of my mother after my father’s death. After 40-plus years of marriage, the loss was difficult for her until he returned to her in a dream. She related how she was sitting in the living room of their home when my father came down the stairs from the second floor. She was so excited to see him. He told her he had returned so she would know he was OK. They visited for a while, until he said he had to go, and went back up the stairs. It was a turning point for her as she began new and different life experiences.

In a material form or not, the human spirit lives on after death for many. In my own life, birds can carry the spirit of the departed. My parents are spiritually present for me in cardinals. An old friend’s spirit, a notable “birder,” travels with the goldfinch. Others can come to my consciousness in the owl.

I’m told by science that the atoms in my body are as old as the universe, something like a minimum of 4.5 billion years. And hydrogen atoms, the most common atoms in our bodies, are older than 13 billion years. It’s hard for me to get my mind around such claims.

I’m asked by my faith to believe in a spiritual life beyond the grave, even the possibility of resurrection. I’m asked by my faith to consider and celebrate a selfless and giving person like Jesus, the child of a heavenly being. I’m asked by my faith to believe in this heavenly being that began this incredible universe, rules it, and keeps the creation in order. It seems almost senseless to suggest such things. It stretches the mind to fathom such ideas.

Just as science stretches the mind, faith asks us to stretch the spirit! We call those who stretch spirit-filled. They are often identified by self-giving love, like Jesus, and leave a resurrected spirit that encourages others!

Carl Kline of Brookings is a United Church of Christ clergyman and adjunct faculty member at the Mt. Marty College campus in Watertown. He is a founder and on the planning committee of the Brookings Interfaith Council, co-founder of Nonviolent Alternatives, a small not-for-profit that, for 15 years, provided intercultural experiences with Lakota/Dakota people in the Northern Plains and brought conflict resolution and peer mediation programs to schools around the region. He was one of the early participants in the development of Peace Brigades International. Kline can be reached at carl@satyagrahainstitute.org. This column originally appeared in the Brookings Register.

Photo: A black hole at the center of a distant galaxy, public domain, wikimedia commons

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