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We asked each of our ministerial interns to share a reflection on what God means to them. Here’s what they had to say.

When I was a child, God spoke to me in a dream—his booming voice shaking me to the core. By the time I woke up I had forgotten his words, but I was sure I must be the next prophet.

I thought if I could have the kind of faith that “moves mountains,” my prophet status would be confirmed. I stared into the jagged faces of the Rocky Mountains and bore down with every fiber of my being.

They didn’t even tremble.

Many years later, God spoke again. I was in labor—in a stage when it felt impossible. I retreated into the darkest corners of myself, searching for every scrap of strength. Suddenly, a small voice began to speak. It spoke about all the women in my life—all the women since the beginning of time who had done what I was about to do.

As it spoke, the faces of these women appeared, murmuring words of encouragement. It was neither a supernatural vision nor mere thought. It was a silver thread of connection…called God. This God didn’t call prophets or demand that I move mountains, but still I felt the need to bear down with every fiber of my being.

This time, something trembled.
—Cassandra Hartley, ministerial intern

During the time I served as a hospital chaplain I saw very few, if any, Unitarian Universalists on my floors, so every encounter was an interfaith encounter. It would be easy to say that we were of different religions, because we were. But I believe the Sacred, or the Holy, is the same for all of us. UU minister Forrest Church wrote that he imagined the world as a cathedral in which, over time, different religions have erected windows: some stained glass, other frosted, and still others clear. It is, however, the same light that shines through each. Our windows simply look different.

Because I view God as the Divine in everyone, in and around everything, each interaction with a patient is in some way Divine. I suppose God is actually in the tension of that relationship. God is in everyone, God is in the community, and God is in the relationships that form in community.
—Aaron Stockwell, intern for young adult ministry

I am drawn to process theology as a way of understanding God. Process theology describes each person as an “event,” rather than an object. Each event has an effect on other events, making us both individuals and part of a larger whole. The idea of a continually developing process that persuades us toward what is good resonates with me. It seems an extension of Theodore Parker’s assertion that the arc of the moral universe is long, but though he doesn’t understand it, he knows it bends toward justice.
—Joanna Fontaine Crawford, ministerial intern

God is in the image of people, of humans in an ever-changing process of adaptation. God is visible in our never-ending struggle to readapt and reinvent ourselves. We cannot fully know the process of God any more than we can fully understand ourselves. However, in the process of unfolding we can sense the currents that we are swept up in, and the particulars of how god moves in our lives. We cannot know what a divine being would want of us on the large scale, but we can see how a failure to recognize the oneness of human experience and life harms us. To see each other and ourselves as separate from God and each other creates disunity and strife that leads to violence, oppression, sin and evil in the world.

God, therefore, is not a static being. God is, and at the same time is more than, the sum total of all creation and the events that unfold in it. God is involved in the ongoing process of the universe, while also being more than the universe. The creative process of the universe shows us how we can live creatively together. We can use our experience of community, the holy moving through us, and the good seen in our communities as reminders of power that god has in our lives.
—Jerrod Oltmann, intern for military ministry

Since early adolescence I have believed there was some sort of force that existed that others called God. Having been raised in a Unitarian Universalist congregation, I was allowed to wonder, question, and challenge understandings of God, both my own and those of others. What I have come to see now is God as a puzzle—with as many pieces as there are people. We each hold a piece of this puzzle, and it is only through our dialogue with one another that we can begin to gain a fuller understanding of who and what God is. In this process of sharing what our puzzle piece looks like, our own piece can be reshaped and reformed. The puzzle is never finished; it is a constant work in progress. The beauty of this image is that it presumes that the process of coming together to share our views is more important than the actual outcome. There are many different facets to my puzzle piece, including the size and shape, the colors and textures, and location in the puzzle. The piece is the vehicle for our dialogue, our insights, and our ultimate growth.
—Lara Campbell, ministerial intern