MY SEARCH  FOR HIGHER POWER AND SPIRITUALITY (2/3)

By: Alan L.

…Eventually, thanks to the power of the Hubble Telescope and science, I was able to make progress, finally, toward obtaining my own concept of a Higher Power.

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe, the nearest of which is the Andromeda Galaxy, whose light has traveled 2 million years to reach us.  The deep field Hubble telescope was aimed at a small portion of sky near the Big Dipper and collected light for ten days.  It was able to collect light from over 3000 galaxies, light that had traveled for over 10 billion years to reach us.  Each galaxy contained hundreds of billions of stars.  Subsequently, Hubble was pointed to another portion of sky near the constellation Orion.  This time the shutter was opened for 11 days and 400 orbits around the earth.  Over 10,000 galaxies were discovered. While these galaxies appear to be standing absolutely still, they are actually racing away from us, in some cases faster than the speed of light.  The Hubble only looked in two directions for all that information.  There are hundreds of billion’s galaxies in the universe, and my brain has no way to accurately put this in any meaningful perspective.

Further, when I consider that light travels at over 186,000 miles per second and that the light from galaxies has traveled over 13 billion years or more to reach us, the thoughts are so overwhelming that my mind simply goes blank trying to understand.  The only thing left for me is to accept that somewhere in the grand scheme of things; there most likely is a Power that has all control and that it most likely could be the Universe itself.  I don’t know!  That concept is easier for me to understand when I realize that this entire planet we live on, and probably our whole solar system, is much less than a pixel of light in the totality of the universe around us.  Therefore, I refer to my Higher Power today as the Totality of the Universe, or the Spirit of the Universe, if you will… In short I call it my HP!  And I have no problem calling it God.

When I shared this concept with one of my sponsors, he pointed out the possibility of turning the Hubble Telescope around in order to look into the space within myself.  To pose a question and ask; what is inside of me in terms of information, energy, talent, and knowledge that I have not yet discovered?  Like the galaxies that the Hubble showed me I did not know, turned inward, it can do the same thing, which brings me to a slightly different question.  How much more about myself is there yet to discover?

By looking inward I may discover that God or HP is not so far fetched or far away after all.  It is pointed out on page 55 of the Big Book that deep down in every man, woman, and child is the fundamental idea of God.  It says that God is a part of our make-up, just as much as the feeling we have for a friend, knowing that he was there, and was as much a fact as we were, and that we can find that Great Reality, deep down within us.

So maybe, just maybe, that untapped potential that lies within us will help us get better connected with ourselves.  Through that enhanced experience of our inner connection, we can discover how valuable we are, and think of connecting the best of who we are with the best in others, just as one alcoholic connects with another.  Was the connection of Bill and Bob in fact, the work of a Higher Power?  Is the connection between you and I the same thing?

To be continued…