If God Is Spirit...

[Near silence] When I say... God... What appears... In your mind? [Long pause] A face? A man? A throne? Someone... Somewhere... Above you? [Silence] Where... Did that picture... Come from? [Soft distant drone] Was it Scripture? Or was it... Something... You were taught... To picture? [Long pause] Jesus said... "God is a Spirit." [Silence] So... What does... Spirit... Look like? [Very long pause] Don't answer... Too quickly. Because if you... Pictured something... You gave... Spirit... A form. [Pause] And if Spirit... Has no form... What exactly... Have we been... Picturing? [Long silence] Male? Female? Old? Young? White? Black? A face? A body? A place? [Pause] Can any... Of those... Contain... Spirit? [Music slowly widens] You cannot see... The wind. You see... What it moves. You cannot see... Life. You see... What lives. You cannot see... Spirit. So... What would you... Expect... To see? [Long pause] Perhaps... The evidence... Of Its presence. [Silence] A breath. A heartbeat. An eye... Seeing. Awareness... Knowing. Life... Living. [Very long pause] Scripture says... "God is a Spirit." And Scripture says... "In him... We live... And move... And have our being." [Pause] Then... Where... Is God? [Long silence] There? [Pause] Or... Here? [Pause] Near? Far? Inside? Outside? [Very long silence] Can something... Be outside... Of that... In which... It has... Its being? [Music becomes warmer] Scripture says... "Whither shall I go... From thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee... From thy presence?" [Long pause] Where could you go? [Pause] Where could... Anyone... Go? [Pause] Where could... Anything... Be... Where Spirit... Is not? [Long silence] And if... There is nowhere... Spirit is absent... What would... Separation... From Spirit... Actually mean? [Very long pause] Perhaps... Distance... Was never... Measured... In miles. [Silence] Perhaps... We learned... To imagine... God... Somewhere... And then spent... Our lives... Trying... To get there. [Long pause] But what if... Spirit... Was never... There? [Pause] What if... There... Was only... Here? [Music begins thinning] Before the word... God... Before the picture... Before the pronoun... Before the doctrine... There is.. [Long silence] Being. [Pause] Life. [Pause] Awareness. [Pause] Presence. [Very long silence] But don't... Call those...God... Just because... I said them. That would only... Give you... Another definition. [Pause] Instead... Ask... If God... Is Spirit... And Spirit... Cannot be pictured... Where... Would you look... For God? [Long silence] And... What... Would be doing... The looking? [Very long silence] Don't answer. [Pause] Let the picture... Disappear. [Long silence] And notice... What remains. [Silence]