If the word God is simply a vocabulary term that we adopted, then what value does it have? I suspect that vocabulary is important when we want to communicate. If, for example, I say that the sky is green then we can all agree that either I am mistaken or something remarkably unexpected has happened. We perceive information and we interpret that information. All of what we know is a fabrication that we construct so as to assemble the pieces of data into some semblance of order. Consider the personal struggle that I encountered recently while I was trying to decide on a course of action.

I was recently asked to volunteer for a worthwhile cause. It sounded appealing and I said I was interested, but I asked for time to consider the opportunity. That night I prayed about it and I perceived an image of Jesus being flogged. The image was borrowed from Mel Gibson’s movie “The Crucifixion of Christ”. But the image did not seem to fit the camera angles that I remembered seeing. As I looked around the room I perceived a massive angel standing in front and to the left of Jesus. I realized that this angel could have reached over and touched the person with the whip and that person would have instantly realized the glory of the Christ. I realized that this angel could simply have breathed on the room full of Romans and all would have died immediately. I realized that the angel could have allowed himself to be made visible and he would immediately have turned the entire Roman legion into obedient slaves. None of that happened. Instead the flogging continued. I then realized that every angel throughout the universe had watched as Jesus hung on the cross. There was a purpose and reason to those actions that far exceeds my understanding.

When I returned to my normal view of reality I wondered what these images had to do with my question. It came to me that all of my actions must be judged in relation to that moment in time. Thus, it is not a question about whether or not I have time to spend on one more worthy cause it is a question about whether or not this specific worthy cause aligns with God’s plan. I need to realize just how limited my time is and I need to focus more intently on the work that I feel called to do. Thus, I need to say no to this worthy cause.

The next day it all seemed so improbable. But every day I need to reassess the direction for my life. If I want to live solely in the “real” world then that vision is a delusion. If, however, there is a God then how can I deny the possibility that there are angels. And if there are angels then how can I deny the image that was expressed in that vision. I need to choose. I can either deny this vision and thus reject the possibility that there is more than I can scientifically measure. Or I can live as if this alternate reality is true and believe that my scientific reality is too limited.

Thus there are two ways to interpret this information. I can consider this to be a response to my prayer. Or I can consider this to simply be a dream sequence and interpret that material along the lines of the dream interpretations made famous by Sigmund Freud. I felt it was important to explore both paths, starting with the Freudian approach.

I already realized that the flogging scene came directly from a movie I had seen a few years ago. The next piece of information is the angel. As I visualized that scene I came to recognize that this angelic image is borrowed from a ceramic angel that my mother gave me a couple years back. The ceramic angel she gave me is a giant when placed next to the tiny angel I retained from an otherwise lost collection of Christmas tree ornaments. Thus the dream images are a composite of images already in my mind. But it was my mind that combined those images and, according to Freudian theory, it did so for a reason.

The response I had to this vision was to say no to something I wanted to do and instead continue to focus on something that is hard work. As a Christian, there is no other image that so expresses the concept of alignment to God’s will as does the crucifixion. Thus, my mind selected this image to remind me to seek alignment. But why the flogging scene instead of the crucifixion scene? As I thought through the movie sequence I remembered that Jesus was flogged until they expected him to be obedient. He resisted and rose from the floor. By doing that he said no. The Romans then flogged him even more severely and yet they did not change him. They could not pull him from alignment back to transforming.

Thus I have an image of alignment, an image of a giant angel and the concept of “no” combined into one picture. Another aspect of this scene is the concept of suffering. This too is harmonious with my inner feelings. I feel like the work of writing is painful. I feel like writing exposes me to the barbs and insults of those around me. I feel that those around me do not understand. And yet I feel that there is purpose to this. And that is where the giant angel fits. I feel that there is a purpose larger than my life and that this purpose calls for me to continue. Thus, it is easy to explain this vision scientifically. Yet doing so does not change the results.

I knew that I must turn down the volunteer opportunity and redouble my efforts to explain my faith. I choose to live my life as if that vision is real. I am going to live my life as if my senses are deceptive in that they hide from me glimpses of reality that do not fit this limited world. I leave it to you to choose. If there is a God, then how can we deny that our prayers are often answered in unexpected ways?

I pondered this and felt that the path I needed to follow was to tell others what I had seen. I expect that people will say that I am mistaken in my religious interpretation. I expect people to say that religion is nonsense and go on to say that my psychological interpretation is wrong. And thus, as I wrote this account, I hesitated. I was in conflict. I do not want to be in conflict. I want to get to alignment. And the path to alignment goes through transformation. What I did was to transform my interpretation to accept the fact that both the scientific explanation and my religious explanation convey meaning to me. I realized that it is important that I live in the “real” world while striving to see what is beyond. While nothing I ever do can compare to what Christ did, even so I must choose. Every day I must choose which path I will follow. Today I choose to accept both interpretations of this vision and live as if both are real.

And thus, I bring a personal revelation, recount it as a story, and disseminate it into the social fabric. All that we know of God is derived from two sources — personal encounters and second hand knowledge.

What is “blue”? Blue is a vocabulary word we have socially defined to have meaning. If you begin with a shade of blue and slowly fade it over to a very light shade of blue and then transition it to a very light shade of green you will find considerable disagreement regarding when blue stopped being blue and suddenly became green. We may each have our own personal opinion but it is society that decides when the transition has occurred. Consider the ending to the Book of Revelations.

In the end the Kingdom of God is established on earth. In the end all people are aligned with God’s will. Assuming still that the word God is just a vocabulary term, would you agree that if we reached a point in social evolution where all humanity was aligned without conflict that we would have a utopian existence? Can you agree that the concept of social evolution that I described in a previous article gives evidence that we are learning how to build better social structures? Can you agree that if we continue long enough in an effort to build better and better social structures then one day we may well find that humanity has created a utopian existence? The Christian vocabulary used to describe that aligned existence is the “Kingdom of God”. It is vocabulary.

We use vocabulary to communicate. Others have visions of what can be. We need to find those visions. We need to compare those visions and find the alignment. I personally know of no other vision that so fully expresses alignment as does the Christian concept of the Kingdom of God — but perhaps you do. The way forward is to act with love, listen to the dissonance as we compare what we understand, put effort into the cause and allow time to flow.

Personally, I find the vision described by Martin Luther King, Jr to be well aligned with the Kingdom of God described by Jesus. But I think you would find that Dr. King always considered Jesus’ words to be a better elaboration on the concept. Personally, I find the life lived by Mahatma Gandhi to be a demonstration of alignment while changing the social order for the betterment of humanity. But I do not think that Gandhi was able to express his concept of utopia with as much conviction as did Jesus. Who are the others that you know that expressed a comprehensive concern for all of humanity and gave us recommendations for the governance structures that we need in order to build that society? We need to find those visions, align those visions and then do sometime about it.

And with that it is time to wrap up the remaining loose ends. Can you agree with me that what humanity knows about God comes from personal revelations that we interpret — and occasionally distort — and second hand knowledge passed along our social web? Can you agree with me that the vision of all humanity aligned is the most ideal vision to choose as we plan our path forward from here? Have I shown you a path that allows us to integrate the dissonance in the Book of Revelations with the love in the gospels in order to provide a stereoscopic view of a God that acts through love and dissonance to try to pull us into alignment? Did I also help you understand that the description of time in the Book of Revelations is continuous? What happened in the past and what will happen in the future are happening today.

My belief is that by now some of you will already understand what I am trying to say. My expectation, however, is that my ability to describe what I have learned is inadequate for everyone. Please accept my apology. I know that learning is a difficult process and I have made assumptions about this process that are based on my own limitations. I have tried throughout this work to compensate for my limitation in expression by saying the same thing in many different ways. What I am now going to do is to go back through this dialectic section again from a different angle. If you have already figured out what I am saying, then this next section will allow us to verify our alignment. If my explanation so far has proved inadequate, then please have patience with me as I try again.

I am going to start this next section by going back to the correlation that I propose exists between the gospels and the Book of Revelations. I believe that the gospels emphasize the love that Jesus expresses. I believe that the Book of Revelations emphasizes the dissonance that God uses to pull us into alignment. Consider the statement in Revelations 3:20 where Jesus says that he is knocking on our door. He wants to come in and eat with us. I believe that if today Jesus was to knock on your door then that would be quite an unexpected event — in other words, that would be a significant display of dissonance. I believe that the concept of dining together is generally taken as a sign of bonding — an expression of our love for each other. Jesus is creating dissonance and wants to demonstrate his love.

Jesus called to Jezebel to express his love and by doing so he created dissonance. Jezebel reacted with conflict and ended up in chaos.

Now consider the short tale in the Luke 11. In this tale a person has a guest show up unexpectedly late at night. The guest has had a long journey and is hungry. The host is a friend who cares for this guest, hears the dissonance expressed in tales of hunger and is aligned with this friend in wanting to provide food. For some reason this host has no food. Perhaps he or she is living in a college dormitory or perhaps he or she too has been traveling and has not yet had time to buy food. In this town there are no all night restaurants and no fast food places open twenty-four hours a day. The best we can tell there are no convenience stores and not even a gas station with vending machines. You might think this is a bit far fetched in our day and age when food is so abundant everywhere, but I have actually been a guest who got to my friends home late, found the cupboards empty and learned that there was no place within thirty miles that was open. My friend did not have a relationship with his neighbors so we drove thirty miles to a convenience store and ate donuts. Fortunately for the guest in the tale in Luke 11 this host has friends.

So the host knocks on the door of one of a friend’s homes and asks to borrow a bit of food. If you were sound asleep and you heard a noise at your home what would your first reaction be? I know that my reaction the many times I have had knocks on my door in the middle of the night is annoyance at who ever has disturbed my sleep. Would you agree that if we are in tranquil sleep and we encounter dissonance our first reaction is going to be aimed in the direction that corresponds with antagonism? In the story in Luke 11 Jesus then reassures us that the neighbor and the host are friends—they have an established bond of love. Jesus then tells us that when we are persistent and we will get whatever we need.

Here is the tale of Jezebel, told with an emphasis on the dimension of love causing transformation. This neighbor understands that the host has love and is not some thief there to cause harm. And yet this neighbor resists. The point of this story is that persistent dissonance will cause the neighbor to change her or his mind. The alternative that we are left to speculate on is that if this neighbor persists in resisting then the dissonance is going to lead to chaos. Think about it. If someone is knocking on your neighbors door and will not go away you find yourself getting drawn into the conflict. The disturbance will awake other neighbors and soon the whole neighborhood will be caught up in the chaos. The only way to avoid chaos is to change our behavior. This neighbor is going to need to get out of bed and give the host whatever it is that will make the host happy. And when he or she does that, the neighbor, the host and the guest will all be in alignment.

Jesus knocked on Jezebel’s door and she tried to sleep through the knocking. After a while she got annoyed. And then pandemonium broke loose and she found herself in chaos. The only difference between the steps in the dance in Luke 11 and in the story about Jezebel in Revelations 2 is the choice made by the person hearing the dissonance.

The timelessness of Revelations is also demonstrated here. It is not that Jezebel practiced some ancient customs that need to be translated for us to understand. It is not that the guest, host and neighbor are following some traditions from some far off time and place. These tales are tales about human nature. These tales are being lived out today in the lives of each and every one of us. And, equally importantly, these same tales are going to continue to repeat ad infinitum until we finally get right. The only way to get humanity out of this cycle is to help humanity find alignment.

Alignment is not just some esoteric topic that theologians debate. Alignment is the proven technique that helps teams of humans work effectively and efficiently with little friction. We know all about the benefits of alignment. What we seem to lack, however, is knowledge about how to create it. The answer is that we already know the answer. We have had the answer to that quandary right there in front of us for two thousand years and we have chosen to ignore it because it creates dissonance that we do not like. It is too difficult for us to take the concepts of a loving God who uses dissonance to transform us and apply it to our lives. You should see the reactions on peoples faces when I use the word “love” in a business meeting. We know the answer and we chose to ignore it because our compartmentalized view of the world allows us to separate our personal longing from our role at work, from our role in society and even from our role in our families.

The pattern is really quite simple.

We want to find a tranquil experience that will not be disturbed by conflict or change.

When we learn that something unexpected has touched our tranquil world we react according to habits that we have learned.

Some people hear the dissonance, feel the conflict and need a tool to help them cope. They turn to sex, drugs or other habits to help regulate the dissonance and escape from the conflict. Those behaviors, however, only amplify the dissonance and soon they spiral into a chaotic life from which it is very difficult to escape. They need our love and they need a safe haven to help them come back to tranquility. Then they need to learn a different reaction to the dissonance and antagonism that surrounds us.

The majority of us react to dissonance with anger and spend our lives in conflict. Look at your life and you will probably find conflict in yourself or in those around you. This is simply a habit that we have learned. We have learned to react to dissonance with anger. We need to break that habit.

There are people who have learned to filter the dissonance and block the antagonism through spiritual disciplines. There is tremendous value in those disciplines. If you find that you are living your life in chaos or conflict, then focus on prayer or meditation or one of the other spiritual disciplines to bring your life back to the center. But always remember that you will not be able to stay there. The dissonance will persist until we change. I have adopted a mental model of attributing the dissonance to one that I call God. When I pray, I enter in to dialogue with God. I talk with a friend and I expect to find answers. If you find that the concept of God is not yet one that you understand, then consider the alternative explanation that our social web of connectedness impacts you. If you choose not to believe in God, then accept the fact that our society is grating against the natural system and the warning signs of that imbalance is the source of the dissonance. Whatever name you want to give the source of that dissonance, there is no way to deny that we cannot live in tranquility. Life interrupts every attempt we make to find stability.

By the way, the Christian vocabulary term for the web of social connectedness is “Holy Spirit”.

People throughout history have learned how to focus themselves through spiritual disciplines and then exit tranquility with the intent to reach transformation. This is a highly beneficial habit. Once we can unlearn the habit of choosing conflict or choosing chaos we should all try to learn the habit of transformation. From the point of view of team formation theory, if we could just learn how to take teams directly from forming to norming our world would be a significantly better place to live.

Beyond that, there are people who have learned how to oscillate between tranquil and aligned. Jesus lived his life in alignment with God and maintained his personal balance through extensive prayer. Here is an example of a habit that we can learn. And if we can teach this habit then humanity just might find alignment. What if every team worked in the performing stage? What if all of your relationships were frictionless? Would that not be a utopian existence. That is the vision that Jesus described when he taught us about the Kingdom of God.

The message in the gospels is that God loves us. The message in the Book of Revelations is that the dissonance will continue until we learn to respond to dissonance through transformation and through alignment. The parables taught in the gospels are case studies that describe the simple dance of human relationships. The stories told in the Book of Revelations are tales about people in the past, who act exactly the same as we do today. The prophecies in the Book of Revelations are tales about what we can expect if we ignore the dissonance. The parables and the prophecies told about our future are the same story. God creates love and dissonance. We are free to choose how we respond.

Which do you prefer? A temporary tranquility? A permanent state of conflict? A terminal state of chaos? The effort required to maintain a transformed self? Or would you like the ultimate peace that is available when we align our wills with the one who loves us and uses dissonance to guide our way?