#42 | WHO’S DRIVING THE GOD TRUCK?

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.”

—Buddha

I was driving through Rapid City, South Dakota, when I saw him.

Cresting the rolling hill in front of me appeared an all-white Ford pickup truck with a giant cross towering over the cab. Streamers were attached and they danced in the wind as the vehicle came toward me in the opposite lane with a large banner that read “In God We Trust.”

“Yes,” I whispered to myself. “In GOD we trust. But that ultimately means in ME I must trust.”

We can call the creator “God,” which is the sacred name for the source of all that is. That source, it can be said, is divine.

Whatever created us is within us.  In this way, we each are divine.

In this way, God’s power is dispersed.  Each of us carries a spark of the divine, and this is why everyone and everything is sacred. I can find manifestations of God both beyond and within me. This is the spiritual interpretation of our place in the Universe.

Approached scientifically, I still arrive at the same end point. My parents created me and their DNA comprises me. My grandparents created them and so their presence is also within me. I can trace this science back to a theoretical point of origin. The first man and woman have a trace of their existence within me. We all go back to the source, and this holds true for all of Earth’s creatures.

On my most recent visit to Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota I came upon the remains of a buffalo. The once-powerful animal was now a collection of milky white bones. His carcass had been consumed by other creatures, which sustained their lives. He was now within them. The rest was decaying back into the very grass that fed the buffalo. The creature was returning to its source.

Both the scientific research and the spiritual revelations point to the same conclusion: There is one source and we emanate from it before returning to it.

This truth is written everywhere for us to see.

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord.”

—Revelation 1:8

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“Human beings and all living things are a coalescence of energy in a field of energy connected to every other thing in the world. This pulsating energy field is the central engine of our being and our consciousness.”

—Lynne McTaggart, The Field

* * *

“Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another.”

—The First Law of Thermodynamics

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“He who experiences the unity of life sees his own SELF in all beings, and all beings in his own SELF.”

—Buddha

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“The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness with the Universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the Universe dwells the Great Spirit, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us.”

—Black Elk

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Science and spirituality are dual paths to a single truth. Everything that exists is connected. The source of that connectivity is within us all. So, yes, in God we trust and, therefore, in me I must trust, for I come from the source. I am a spark of the divine.

To hear that source within me I simply turn inward and listen to my heart, where the source resides. Unfortunately, “leaders” (religious, political, educational, business, and otherwise) have been mucking up our individual awakenings for centuries by convincing us that “power” lives somewhere out there, beyond us.

It’s time for both leaders and followers to transcend that self-serving narrative. God doesn’t collect power, she disperses it. The truth is, we are each driving a little God truck around Planet Earth. So, for heaven’s sake, take the wheel.

“What if God was one of us?”

—Joan Osborne

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Thank you for considering my thoughts. In return I honor yours. Every voice matters. Nestled between our differences lies our future.

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This is the forty-second post in a series of short essays to be posted by Kevin to www.thebusinessofsharedleadership.com in 2021. Kevin is dedicating these writings in honor of Black Elk, the Oglala Sioux holy man who was escorted as a child on a sacred vision quest by the 48 horses of the four directions to visit the six Grandfathers. My horses, prancing they are coming. They will dance; may you behold them. On that journey Black Elk understood the sacred power that dwelled within him and lives within us all. He also recognized that this power could be used for good or bad. Intentional we must be about the path we walk. To invite others to join The Business of Shared Leadership and receive these posts, just pass this link along. The more who join, the deeper the energy field of engagement will become! Thank you!