The Other IP

The abbreviation “IP” has multiple meanings. The two most-used meanings are the legal phrase “intellectual property” and the technological application of “internet protocol.” However, this editorial will explore another IP.

It comes from the book True Education, which on page 49 says, “In every human being He discerned infinite possibilities. He saw people as they might be, transfigured by His grace. Looking upon them with hope, He inspired hope. Meeting them with confidence, He inspired trust. In His presence despised and fallen souls longed to prove themselves worthy of His regard. New impulses were awakened in many a heart that seemed dead to all things holy. To many a despairing one there opened the possibility of a new life.”¹

How Does God See You?

So very often, we are portrayed under the eternal gaze of God as just fallen, fallible, sinful, and in need of mercy and grace. There is no denying this, our imperfection—but here we see something more, something different about how God sees us as infinite possibilities, as worthy of His love, mercy, and grace. Why else would He sacrifice His very own life for us? We are His creation, and He does not abandon what His mind imagined, what His hands made, and what His breath brought to life. He seeks to redeem and restore us precisely because of what He has invested in us. Fallen, yes. Fallible, yes. Sinful, yes. In need of mercy and grace, yes. But we are His. In us, He has deposited all the treasures of heaven. He created us from stardust, from among the most abundant elements of the universe—hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon. Indeed, the human body contains about a billion billion billion (10²⁷) atoms.² The universe is in us in abundance. We hold infinity within our mortality. Only God could fit infinity in the finite, eternity in a second, and “a world in a grain of sand.”³ We are His infinite possibilities, the original IP, the real IP, the other IP.

Indeed, we are not just a bag of atoms. We are ordered and organized into diverse emergent hierarchies spanning the nanoscopic to the macroscopic. Atoms form molecules, which form supramolecules, which form organelles and biomolecular condensates, which are parts of cells that make up tissues then organs and systems of organs in you and me. Unique, often unpredictable, properties, processes, functions, and life emerge as organization and hierarchy increase. Life is a non-equilibrium state of matter and energy in dynamic exchange or transaction with the environment. Yet we do not really or exactly know how and when life emerges from inanimate atoms and molecules in the size dimensions and energy states of multiple differentiated cells. Or how consciousness, intelligence, language, culture, art, music, and spirituality emerge from our material selves. Consider, also, that we are gifted with an estimated average of 86 billion neurons with over 1,000 trillion synaptic connections.⁴ It is estimated that we process more than 70,000 thoughts and 100,000 words or 74 gigabytes each day.⁵ No wonder staying focused and attentive can be a challenge for us!

These are the bases of our infinite possibilities. We are not simply reducible to wavefunctions or to demographic categories such as gender, nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, politics, or color. We are inexhaustibly more; we are infinite possibilities. For this, for you, for me, Heaven was willing to pay the infinite price; Heaven is willing to offer the ultimate prize—eternal life in the presence of our Creator.

How Do You See You?

Are we gods? No. Are we underived? No. Yet, throughout human history, we have often acted as if we were infallible; we have acted without humility. We have acted out of inordinate pride, seemingly oblivious to our limitations. We have forgotten the inherent contradictions of who we are—finite beings with infinite possibilities. We must hold and understand these opposing views of who we are forever in our gaze. Unchecked and unbalanced, we would descend on the one hand, into the dysfunctionalities of racism, chauvinism, partisanship, parochialism, nationalism, and virulent narcissism.

However, we have also suffered from the morbidity of self-loathing and of low self-image and self-esteem. Here, too, on the other extreme, there are examples of religious and psychological traditions and practices through which human beings seek in vain to attain divine perfection through self-flagellation and “mortification of the flesh,” with Martin Luther being an iconic example.⁶ These beliefs and practices forget that, in fact, we are all made in the image of God and that He sees us as infinite possibilities, even with our imperfections. In this era of selfies and other self-promoting technologies, our never-ending task is to find the balance along the spectrum of the wonder and awe and the fallibility and mortality of our human nature.

In her well-known work, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles,” Marianne Williamson pens words that should inspire us all to see ourselves as God sees us: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” And she continues, “We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.”⁷ We are God’s creation, and even in our imperfections, we have infinite possibilities. In the immortal words of Martin Luther King, Jr: “Number one in your life’s blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your own worth and your own somebodiness. Don’t allow anybody to make you feel that you’re nobody.”⁸ In each of us is the imprint of the Creator who designed us to shine brightly like stars in the night sky (Matthew 5:14-16). This is the unabridged declaration and testament of our self-determination, emancipation, and freedom.

How Do You See Others?

We run the entire spectrum of how we see others. At times evil, at times good. At times brutal, at times beautiful. At times cynical, at times faithful. It would do us good to know and always keep in mind that we are, at times, and often at the same time, both darkness and light. However, the passage from True Education focuses us on the often forgotten yet transforming power of discerning infinite possibilities in others. It can awaken hope in the hopeless, engender trust from the cynic, lift faith out from the doubtful, stimulate self-worth in the self-loathing, and birth new life and new impulses from those who are anxious and despairing. We often rise to the level of expectations. Seeing the best in others can bring out the best in ourselves and others.

We live in an era now when the word diversity and what it stands for is increasingly maligned and attacked. Each day, we are bombarded with messages, actions, and decisions that seek to undermine others’ individual worth and elevate the faux supremacy of another. We must actively and proactively resist this, for it is inconsistent with the kingdom of God in heaven and on earth. Now is the time for a new enlightenment, for us to reimagine each other as infinite possibilities, with no one inferior or superior to another.

It should not be threatening that we live in a universe and a world where possibilities are abundant and infinite. It has been calculated that the possibility, the odds that you or anyone else exists, is 1 in 10^2,685,000, or 10 followed by 2,685,000 zeros.⁹ We are each, in a word, miracles—yet each different and diverse. This is to be celebrated, not feared, embraced, not rejected. God created diversity, ordained it, delights in it, and is intoxicated with you and me, so much so His love for us led Him to Calvary. He chose and imagined into existence each one of us from among all the infinite possibilities. We were in His thought before we became flesh; we were in His spirit before we had breath and body (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:13-16). Don’t allow anyone to violate that.

Indeed, the truth, beauty, and righteousness of diversity should be embedded in every human heart, especially for those who profess belief in divine creatorship and salvation. God is totally invested in each of us; nothing in death or in life can separate us from God (Romans 8:38, 39). He sees our value not only as we are but also in who we can become. We can all credibly declare with the Psalmist in deepest gratitude, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psalm 139:14, KJV).

Seeing the infinite possibilities of our students, employees, colleagues, family, and friends can create safe spaces for others and ourselves to be our authentic selves even while in mortal pursuit of our best selves. It creates a space of grace and mercy for the ongoing work of restoration of the image of God. It creates the space where possibility can flourish into reality, unbounded by gender, race, nationality, religion, socioeconomics, or any other demographic criteria or categorization. In such safe spaces, we will seek to live up to the promise of what is possible for each of us when we see ourselves and others as God sees us—infinite possibilities in the redemptive process. This is the other IP, the real IP. May God grant us the discernment to see and have faith in each other’s infinite possibilities.

Desmond Hartwell Murray

Desmond Hartwell Murray, PhD, is Associate Professor of Chemistry at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, U.S.A. He is Founding Director of Building Excellence in Science and Technology (BEST Early), Inspire Early, Environmental Fridays, and the Center for Early Research. He is also co-founder of A 4 Asthma and InTobago. He is Lead Editor for and Chapter Author in the 2016 American Chemical Society Symposium book, The Power and Promise of Early Research. In 2018, he received Andrews University’s highest faculty honor – the John Nevins Andrews Medallion. He was recognized as the 2010 Thought Leader in Science Education for Southwest Michigan, as the 2012 College Teacher of the Year for the State of Michigan, and by the American Chemical Society Accreditation Committee in 2021 for his early research initiatives.