Along the Way: Creator

Oboedire

by

Practicing Faith

Special to United Methodist Reporter | Jan. 20, 2026

We begin our big-picture look at the spiritual life at its largest place: God.

I want to be clear: I know there are some who do not believe in God at all, and many others who do not believe in God as described in conventional religion. If you are reading this as one in either of these people, be assured that I am with you, not against you in this post.

I still believe in Being that transcends the rest of being. But after that, I am less linked to all the attributes of God which often come in standard “I believe” commitments. I find myself moving quickly into Mystery, leaving a lot of the details about God in the maybe/maybe-not category.

Also, I want to say up front than when I hear or read someone saying, “I don’t believe in God,” after I find out what kind of God they don’t believe in, I find myself saying, “I don’t believe in such a God either.” There are a lot of false gods out there today.

All this to say, I begin our look at big-picture aspects of the spiritual life with God, but hopefully with enough wonder to leave space for everyone in the conversation.

I start where the writer of Ecclesiastes wrote that God “has placed eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). We have a sense of transcendence even if we use different words to describe it.

As I get older, God is less to be explored theologically and more to be experienced personally, along the lines that Eugene Peterson wrote about in his introduction to the Book of Genesis in The Message Bible,

“First, God. God is the subject of life. God is foundational for living. If we don’t have a sense of the primacy of God, we will never get it right, get life right, get our lives right. Not God at the margins; not God as an option; not God on the weekends. God at center and circumference; God first and last; God, God, God.” [1]

In big-picture spirituality, I think of this using a word I saw first in the writing of Evelyn Underhill: Reality. [2] From her, I discovered that God as Ultimate Reality is the main way the Wisdom tradition refers and relates to God. In The World Wisdom Bible, Rami Shapiro writes helpfully about this, calling it “the reality beyond all theologies and systems of belief ” [3]

I agree with this not only with respect to the nature of God but also in terms of the view of God that generates conversation, not conflict. And this is something we desperately need.

Putting all this together, we begin with God in our exploration of big-picture spirituality because God is the Source–as creator, redeemer, and sustainer–the Headwater for the stream we call the spiritual life.

[1] Eugene Peterson, The Message Bible (NavPress, 2002), 6.

[2] Evelyn Underhill, The Spiritual Life (Hodder & Stoughton, 1937), 31.  Still available in multiple formats.

[3] Rami Shapiro, ed., The World Wisdom Bible (SkyLight Paths, 2017), 39.

The Rev. Dr. Steve Harper is retired seminary professor, who taught for 32 years in the disciplines of Spiritual Formation and Wesley Studies. Author and co-author of more than fifty books.. He is also a retired Elder in The Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.