Article September 11, 2000 ISSUE

What impels thought and action?

Relax. God is at the helm.

Carol Rockhold Miller

What is it that makes us think what we think, feel what we feel, say what we say, or do what we do? Many theories try to explain thoughts, feelings, and actions in terms of psychology or psychiatry, tracing the influence of heredity, life experiences, and emotional interactions with others. How freeing it is to look away from this complicated tangle of impulses and emotions and open up to the spiritual fact that God alone governs us, His creation. God is our creator, our Father and Mother, and each one of us is actually the outcome of God's being. As God's outcome, or idea, we can think, feel, say, or do only that which God causes us to express. The book of Amos makes this clear: "He that ... declareth unto man what is his thought, ... The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name" (4:13).

That very basic truth of man's spiritual being holds profound importance for the way we think of others. Understanding that God impels every one of His children frees one from anxiety, and reveals God's goodness in every situation.

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