A Continuation of the Commentary on Theologia Germanica, by the Frankfurter.
For the lack lies altogether in us, and not in it. In like manner the sun lights the whole world, and is as near to one as another, yet a blind man sees it not; but the fault thereof lies in the blind man, not in the sun. (Theology Germanica)
By “lack” two kinds of deficiency are meant. One is simple limitation. We do not fly because we have no wings and cannot live underwater because we have no gills. There is no fault in this.
But the other is limitation and lack from making no effort to extend our limitation because we consider it too much trouble or simply have no interest in it at all.
We live surrounded by people who never give God or spiritual life a thought. They will think about flying to the moon before thinking about God or spiritual life. In some this is a (no-fault) matter of lack of evolution, and in others a sign of conscious negativity and aversion to higher consciousness and God the Highest.
God lacks nothing
As already pointed out, there is no lack on God’s part, for the very presence of creation is evidence of His doing all to help us onward in evolution. As Yogananda once pointed out, we already have God’s blessing, but we lack our blessing for spiritual life.
“What is man’s will and how shall he use it? Let him put forth its power to uncover the Atman, not hide the Atman: man’s will is the only friend of the Atman: his will is also the Atman’s enemy. For when a man is self-controlled, his will is the Atman’s friend. But the will of an uncontrolled man is hostile to the Atman, like an enemy” (Bhagavad Gita 6:5, 6).
Through His omnipresence God is near to every single person
“that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; for we are also his offspring” (Acts 17:27, 28).
Nothing can be closer to us than God. Some people are like compasses with sensitive needles that point always to God; others are like compasses with weak needles that sometimes do and sometimes do not point to God; and others are like compasses with needles that never point to God.
Believe it or not, when I was a boy scout I bought a cheap compass that never pointed north and after a while consistently pointed south! I have met a lot of people in my life whose inner compass was always turned away from God–sometimes intentionally and sometimes not intentionally, but the result was the same.
A sad example
When I was in my teens, one day an elderly man who was known to have a very weak heart came to work on our television set. When he was done he asked my father to play something for him on our organ. I never heard my father play anything but hymns, and this was no exception. But before half a minute had passed the man said to him: “You can save that for when I am laid out.” So my father stopped playing and the man went home and was dead in four days. Many ignore God, but many have an aversion to God. Our spiritual state and destiny lie in our will alone.
Few things are sillier than the “why does God allow?” demand. It is because we have been given freedom by God to be used or misused. It is all up to us.
Further Reading from the Theologia Germanic Commentary: