The Improviser

There's a saying that goes: "God meets you where you're at", which means God/Source/Love works with each individual according to their level of awareness. One story that is often cited to illustrate this is the parable of the drowning man who asks God for help. A boat comes to rescue the man but he refuses to get on and believes God will save him. The boat leaves. Another boat arrives and tries to rescue him but the man refuses and expects God to rescue him. After he dies he asks God why he didn't rescue him and God tells him he sent him two boats.

The parable seems to suggest that the man's view was so limited that he couldn't see when God was meeting him at his level of awareness in the form of the two boats. It is also possible that this parable was written from the writer's level of awareness. Perhaps, the writer is someone who had been praying for a "miracle" and when it hadn't happened he started thinking that maybe God has already answered and, like the drowning man, he's either missed it or not seeing it.

Surely if God is all powerful, He could easily have rescued the man in the blink of an eye without him having to wait for a boat, unless you believe God either likes to play games or is not all powerful.

The God I believe in is Creative Intelligence. This means He can create solutions to any problems on the spot. I'm reminded of the satirical panel game show I was watching last night on TV called Mock the Week where celebrities (mostly comedians) give their humorous takes on events that have happened during the week. In one game, the host gave them a headline and the comedians had to come up with an appropriate story that fitted. I was very impressed at how quickly these comedians could improvise.

I believe God is the Master of improvisation.

I've witnessed the Improviser at work numerous times in my experience and in others.

Once when I was nearly run down by a van I felt a hand grab me by the collar and pulled me out of harm's way. When I looked back there was no one there.

When my uncle's house was set fire and he didn't think he could get out, he prayed and went to bed, expecting the worse. He woke up and found the house had been put out. No one had a clue how that had happened.

When a friend's car broke down and she desperately needed it to work I prayed and the car came back to life and took her to her destination.

While a friend and I were moving this table and it got stuck because it was too big for the corridor, I prayed and the wall shifted and the table went through.

Back to the drowning man parable, given what I believe about God as the Improviser, I'm now rewriting the parable as follows.

After the drowning man asks God to rescue him, he stops struggling, closes his eyes and gives up. When he opens his eyes, he finds himself lying on a beach. He has no idea how he got there. The man starts jumping for joy. A few passersby ask him why he's so happy and he tells them what has happened, but they don't believe him.

God can either meet me where I'm at or I can just give up and let God improvise.

Enocia

Related articles: The Improviser - Part 2; Creativity - Revisited; No Explanations Necessary; The Shape Shifter; The Problem with Experience; It's Magic!; Out of Sheer Desperation; Prayers of Deliverance; All Questions Have Their Answers; Creative Intelligence is Everywhere; Freedom is Imagination