“Oh My God”: The Comedy of Forgetting Yourself

There is a curious and rather comedic ritual that repeats itself across the world. Someone stubs their toe, reads a shocking headline, or spills coffee on something important—and instinctively exclaims:

“Oh my God!”

In that moment, without hesitation or thought, they invoke the Divine.
Not a god. Not the god. But my God.

The phrase slips out so naturally, so universally, that its weight is almost never noticed. But if we pause, even briefly, we might catch a glimpse of the truth hidden inside that reflex.

They are not calling upon a distant figure in the clouds. They are speaking—unknowingly—to their own divine essence. That quiet centre, the “I AM” within, the still point Neville Goddard taught as the origin of all creation: imagination.

And then—here’s the punchline—they promptly ignore themselves.

It’s the spiritual equivalent of dialling your own number in a crisis, hearing your own voice answer… and then hanging up.

A Subconscious Confession
They say “Oh my God!”
The inner self stirs.
The door to heaven opens a crack.

And then—just as quickly—it shuts again.

Because no sooner is God called upon than the moment is filled with worry, blame, or disbelief. The call to the Divine is never finished. The subconscious confession is never heard.

Neville would say this is the human condition in miniature: the soul knows the truth, but the surface mind cannot hold it. Even in exclamation, the imagination reveals itself—only to be forgotten again.

You Called. You Answered. You Forgot.
The comedy, of course, is not in the crying out. That’s pure instinct. The comedy is in the immediate forgetting.

We summon the sacred with our own words, only to return to fear. We invoke our divine inheritance, then brush it off like a passing thought. We reach into the holy—only to return to complaint.

“Oh my God!”
And never once do we stop to wonder:
What if I am the one capable of putting this right?

James 1:23-24 offers a perfect mirror to this human tendency:

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

It’s as if the very moment we glimpse the truth of who we are—the divine essence within—we turn away and forget. Just as we can call out to our higher self in frustration and need, we often fail to continue the conversation or act upon the recognition. The mirror reflects the truth, but we walk away unchanged, forgetting the power and potential we hold.