Why God Yells

Because sometimes we need help paying attention

I was on a long flight with my wife and our three kids from Vancouver, BC, to Cancun for our one and only Mexico vacation. Flight delays, a long layover in Atlanta, and seats at the very back of the plane that didn’t recline while I was exhausted and hoping to rest had put me on tilt. Mid-flight I got up to go to the bathroom. Waiting outside the rear galley lavatory, it seemed as though an eternity had passed since either of the users had exited. I was annoyed and impatient, so I rapped on one of the doors.

I was blindsided and bewildered when the flight attendant went ballistic on me for rushing the occupant! To this day I don’t think what I did was so terrible. But I have to admit, I was not in a very alert or balanced state of mind, and I’d never seen anybody knock on an airplane washroom door before. I’d also never seen them monopolized for that length of time.

Looking around at the other waiting passengers I was hoping to see sympathetic faces, but I only felt further ashamed to see more looks of condemnation from the bystanders. I had clearly missed the mark — enough to be judged by a jury of my airborne peers and to be given some strong feedback to consider.

Amplified feedback is usually a sign
You don’t have to be an adherent of any formal religion to believe in the interconnectedness of things. You may have experienced enough unexplainable coincidences to believe in some form of unified field theory — like getting phone calls from someone you were just thinking about, prayers answered, or even being immediately faced with a test for a life lesson you’ve just learned.

In actuality, I think we’re getting subtle signals from our own perceptions and sensations all the time, and that they’re trans-rational and highly intelligent. We can feel or sense patterns, possibilities, and cautions at a level that defies logic and yet are often accurate. When we tune out those perceptions and ignore them, the universe has to get a little louder and more obvious to get our attention. Mindfulness is the basis of a good life for this reason.

When we can self-correct based on our inner sense of balance, kindness, harmony, and flow, external reminders and feedback become less necessary. If we disconnect from our own inner navigation system, then the external world in the form of situations, circumstances, and individuals inherits the job of letting us know when we’re drifting off course — like the textured highway shoulder that rattles our vehicle when we’re straying from the pavement. Such external reminders might come in the form of:

• An empty bank account

• Your mate is chronically unhappy

• Losing your job

• One of your kids stops speaking to you

• Getting a speeding ticket

• Chronically losing track of objects and commitments

If these don’t get your attention, the universe sends a message up the chain of command to less benign messengers, like:

• Car accidents

• Bankruptcy

• Major health problems

• Relationship break-ups

Good reasons why God might yell
As humans, we have the capacity to be conscious. Part of being conscious is having the awareness of pain, which may signal an imbalance. If we’re emotionally, physically, intellectually, or spiritually out of whack, we’ll feel like something is wrong.

I believe there is a higher order that is always inviting us into alignment; that we’ll get gentle reminders to dance in harmony with our lives as long as we’re aware and responsive — and that reminders will stop being gentle if we ignore the subtler feedback.

Most of us tend to take getting “yelled at” personally, as though we’ve done something wrong. But what if God — the unified field of intelligence we exist within — actually just cares about us enough to send wake-up calls, soft alarms, or — when needed — billboard-size roadside messages to help us stay on track and manage change with more awareness and skill?

I’ve been reflecting on how complex life is and how much there is to pay attention to. Given our mortal limits, maybe we all just really need the help of “God” to stay on course. Here are a few reasons why God might yell at us.

• To alert us to an opportunity before it passes

• To inspire us to speak up when we’re playing small

• To trigger an avalanche to seal off our usual escape route

• Because we’ve assumed privileges that we have not earned

• To liberate us from the prison of thinking we are special

• Because some forms of armor must be forcibly removed

• To disassemble manufactured authenticity

• To help us discover that we can dance to anything

• Because we’ve lost sight of ourselves in excuses and justifications

• To touch someone standing next to us that God can’t reach

• Because we’ve forgotten that not making a decision is a decision

• To cause our buried embers to burst into full flame

There are a lot of circumstances in which we could use help in paying attention and exercising vigilant awareness. The next time life appears to be yelling at you in the form of your partner, child, grandchild, bank account, health, boss, colleagues, parents, friends — or the weather, economy, traffic, or some authority — you can consult the list above and review whether it might be God trying to get your attention for a good reason.

Rick Lewis