Seeking Predictability Erodes Our Ability to Trust in a Higher Power
It’s not a male authority who provides for us, it’s not large corporate or governmental institutions — it’s the ineffable.
The industrial revolution began back in the mid 18th century. The notion of the 40-hour workweek came about more recently in 1914. Labor unions grew in popularity around the same time. And ever since we’ve been seeking more predictability — punch a clock, show up to a cubicle or a job site, work for a predictable number of hours, punch out, catch a bus or train, brave the traffic in our steel and glass enclosed rolling machines, arrive home, pop a brewski, kick up our feet, and watch a game. The next day, do the same thing all over again.
Well, maybe the brewski and game part varies by person. I’m more of a kombucha and read a few articles kind of guy. But in any event, with some details in variation, we mostly seek predictable lives. A predictable income, savings for a predictable retirement, medical insurance, life insurance, homeowner’s insurance, a mortgage that might one day be paid off, two pets, and three children so we can at least feel that we’re doing something meaningful with our lives by raising the next generation.
Every four years in the U.S. we have a presidential election that lasts for nearly two years. Candidate after candidate preaches the mantra of “JOBS.” Of course, they’re strategically speaking to a specific audience, an audience of a huge number of people that crave more predictability — a J.O.B. with a predictable income, benefits, and security.
Predictable lives lead us down a road of losing our spirituality by the nature of the fact that we lose our ability to trust in a higher power (call it God, Shiva, Spirit, Universe, or whatever moniker you like). Instead of trusting higher power, we trust the JOB, the company, the government. We look to the higher power within human hierarchical structures for our care and protection, rather than the “Great Divine” (a name I kind of like for higher power).
Then at the same time, we reduce our notion of God based on over simplistic notions of patriarchal leadership and overseers who dole out according to our needs. Then when things don’t go well — when we get laid off, or we get sick and our medical insurance doesn’t cover it, or we get fired for missing too much time at work, or inflation and wage stagnation means we can no longer make ends meet, we look to the higher power of “the company” or “the government” to solve our problems.
And if that doesn’t work, we blame the other political party (the one other than the one we identify with). It’s so easy to pick a side and blame the other side for our own failure to merely trust that we are always provided for, and the only thing that prevents the good from flowing into our lives is our unwillingness to trust in the flow of good.
By looking to an “authority,” a CEO, a president, a senator, a congresswoman, etc. to solve our problems and make us feel secure, we accept a kind of reality in which we’re powerless over our own wellbeing. Accepting this reality erodes our ability to trust.
Then the economy crashes and we lose our job, or our neighbor loses their job, or our best friend or spouse lose their job and panic ensues. The range of emotions kick in. First grief, then sadness, then fear, then anger, then judgement, then bitterness, then we hate the other side even more, and the cycle continues.
But let’s take a ride on H.G. Wells’ time machine. Let’s go on an adventure and visit a time forgotten. Let’s say a few thousand years ago. How did we live back then? How did we survive? There were no jobs per se. There were no CEOs or labor unions or punch clocks. We did have forms of money though. There was barter. There was sharing.
Depending on what region of the world we land in, there might have been slavery or despotism or cooperative organized labor where each person contributed according to their ability. We might have had a benevolent monarch or a tyrannical overlord. But there were no punch clocks or 401Ks or 40-hour workweeks or life insurance. There was likely very little predictability outside our own ability to work, to plan, and to trust each other and trust in a higher power.
We tend to have an image of the past as being more primitive and that life was much harder, but such a belief implies that we are better off today, that we are more civilized, that society is constantly evolving from a less just and predictable kind of living to a more just and predictable kind of living. But such thinking is naïve.
At the time Europeans were throwing pots of poop and pee out the window and wondering why they were sick all the time, there was Tenochtitlan, which became the modern-day Mexico City, that had an advanced system of aqueducts for the transport of people and supplies. And there were people who cruised by on boats every morning to pick up clay pots of human excretions, transport them outside the city where they composted it, turned it into usable soil that was later used in the fields to grow the food to feed the city’s inhabitants. But those “savage Aztecs” were not civilized. They were Godless and unsophisticated and needed to be tamed (in other words conquered) so as to liberate the local indigenous people so they can live like the modern Europeans.
It's all perspective as to who is more advanced or more civilized. And it’s naïve to think that humanity only evolves from a state of less sophistication to more. It would be more accurate to say that humanity evolves from a state of less control to more, and from less extraction and exploitation to more.
Trusting in a higher power is a radical new course for humanity because it means that for us to trust in the ineffable means that we need to continually and continuously engage with higher power. It means that we need to acknowledge that we are spiritual beings having a human experience — that this human existence we call life is the grand illusion and the reality is that we are spiritual in nature. And the context of such a knowing is that we begin to live our lives differently. Instead of it being all about what we get, it’s about what we give. Instead of extraction, it’s contribution. Instead of taking, it’s about healing.
And we begin to trust more and more each day. Instead of waiting for some squeaky-clean politician to come along and save the day we look to our higher power for trust and guidance. We contribute each day simply knowing that all will be well.
Yesterday I met a neighbor for the first time. He lives maybe a mile from us, but like many in our area, he lives reclusively. They come here to escape “civilization” and live close to nature. So, it took a year and two months to finally meet. I spotted him on the side of the road carrying a large rock to the bed of his truck. So, I stopped to see who he was and chat for a minute. Turns out his rock collecting was to build up a culvert and better divert water off his road. He didn’t have any teeth and his truck was dilapidated. He was old and moved slowly. Burly beard and stained clothing. But he was kind. After chatting for just a minute he asked, “Do you want some squash?” “Sure,” I said. Then he went to his truck and pulled out a large bag of squash and zucchini he had picked that morning, sharing his surplus of nature’s goodness.
Then this morning as I tap out these words, I stepped outside for just a moment distracted by the orange glow of the morning sunrise to snap the photo featured in this post. The ground was moist from a gentle rain through the night. The hillside lush with green from a robust monsoon season. The air clean and fresh.
It’s not complicated. It’s really quite simple. It’s not a male authority who provides for us. It’s not large corporate or governmental institutions that provide for us. It’s the ineffable, the God without gender, the Great Divine, the Oneness of the Universe.
But when we lose the knowing and our ability to trust in the Great Divine, then we seek to replace it with something else, with something tangible and predictable. And when we don’t get enough of what we need, we fight for more and the cycle continues.
It’s this simple truth — that the sickness of humanity is in our reluctance (not inability) to trust in a higher power for all our needs.
If you’ve enjoyed this post please like, share, and subscribe. The way the DEEPER side of things reaches a wider audience is through word of mouth. Thank you for your support.
Beautiful photo and life vision.