What if You Could Create Your Own God?

Unique Perspectives: What if You Could Create Your Own God?

By Kim Stevens

Several weeks before he passed away, my dad and I had a powerful conversation. He was trying to reconcile being at peace, not only in the eyes of his family and friends but also in the eyes of God. 

I said to him, “Dad, God can be whatever you want it to be.”

He was raised in Catholic school. To my dad, the concept was entirely new.

Then he thought about what I said, and during what would be the last remaining days of his life, he called and told me, “This is so important. This is changing everything for me.”

Those were some of the final words shared between us, the final gifts exchanged, the final epiphanies reached, and I’ll remember them forever. 

I used to believe if I didn’t do the right thing, God was going to punish me, and the fear in that long-entrenched belief was subtly crippling. But beliefs can be broken, and mine shattered when someone asked: “If you were to create God, what would God be? If it were your choice entirely, what would God be for you?”

I thought about the question, let it really sit and simmer in the most solidly formed pieces of my being, and once it settled, the question cracked those pieces wide open. The truth is, I realized, this is my choice. If I believe it, I will see it. So, when I started to say, “God has got my back. Everything works out for me and things are rigged in my favor,” I started to experience that they really were.  Because the universe is so creative, and that creativity is part of me, I got to choose how I experience life.

Joseph Campbell says: “In choosing your God, you choose your way of looking at the universe. There are plenty of Gods. Choose yours. The God you worship is the God you deserve.”  

I came to understand that choosing my God speaks to choosing the meaning of my life. When I change what I decide my God is, the universe conspires to make it so … for me. This extraordinary power can remain untapped for so many of us, but it was incredible to share my Unique Perspective with my father before his death. I watched it change everything for him, and listened as he told me how a new way of looking at his God was refreshing, uplifting and empowering all at once, just as I’d imagined it would be. So to answer the question, “Can you create your own personal God?” I’d say, you bet you can.