It's not an easy thing being God

This was written by Leonard Pitts several years ago. I always liked it and found it to be somewhat thought provoking. What do you think?

It's not an easy thing being God

Leonard Pitts Jr.
Miami Herald
October 26, 2004

I threw down the newspaper in disgust. God, who was sitting in the recliner next to mine watching the baseball playoffs, glanced over.

"Relax," he said, "the campaign will be over in a few days."
"It's not that," I said.

"Then what?"

I handed God the newspaper. He put on his reading glasses and spent a few minutes studying the page. Finally, he shook his head. "Oh," he said as he laid the paper aside.

" 'Oh?' Is that all you can say? Didn't you read the story? These rebels in Uganda, they're kidnapping children and forcing them to be soldiers and sex slaves! It says here they've killed 100,000 people, displaced 1.6 million over the last 18 years. Doesn't that bother you?"

"It bothers me," said God.

"I would think so. Especially since…"

God arched his brow. "Especially since what?"

It took me a second to gather my courage. "Especially since they're doing it in your name," I said finally. "It's bad enough they call themselves the Lord's Resistance Army, but did you see this part here? According to the United Nations, these monsters say they're kidnapping kids in order to set up a new government based on the Ten Commandments."


"They forgot No. 8," said God.

"Beg pardon?"
"No. 8," said God. " 'Thou shalt not steal.' Also No. 6, of course. 'Thou shalt not kill.' "

"Why don't you stop them then? Send a plague. Destroy the rebels."

"Is that what you think I should do?"

"You weren't shy about it in the Old Testament."

God sighed. "You send a little too much rain one time and they never let you forget."

"It's not funny!" To my surprise, I shouted it.

You're angry with me," said God.

I swallowed hard. "I guess I am. It shouldn't be this way. It doesn't have to be."

"Well, we agree there."

"Then make it stop. You could."

"I could," he agreed. "Maybe I will. But it will just start again somewhere else. You know that, don't you?

That's the problem with that free will thing I gave you all."

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "We can choose to do right or we can choose to do wrong. I know all about that."

"Don't give me 'yeah, yeah,' " God said sternly. "And for the record, that's not what I meant. What I'm saying is that you people, you're all like that Jim Carrey fellow in that 'Bruce' movie. You all think you can be a better God than I can. Some awful thing happens to you, or some bad person isn't instantly struck down by lightning bolts and you figure it must be because God is slipping. You figure he needs your help.
"So you decide to play God. And you use my name to sanction your meanest and most narrow impulses, like I'm a moral Get Out of Jail Free card or something. You say you're doing my will, then you steal babies and make war. You say you're doing what God said, then you kill one other. I told you to 'love' one other. How do you get from 'love' to 'kill?' "

"But how are we supposed to have faith in you when you let so many bad things happen?" I asked.

"I could ask you the same question," said God. "You know why I gave you free will? I wanted you to surprise yourselves sometimes. Surprise me, too. I knew you'd do things that disappointed me, but I thought you'd make me proud more often. I thought you would find more opportunities to do good. Instead, you find opportunities to break my heart.
"And yet I keep giving you chances, don't I? Keep giving you sunrises, keep giving you babies, keep giving you breath, waiting for you to surprise me."

I picked up the paper and looked at the awful story again. "Lord, have mercy," I said.

God gave me a wan smile. "I know," He said. "You think it's hard believing in me? Think how I feel, trying to believe in you."

You'll Never Walk Alone

In an earlier post, I wrote about Prayer--talking to God. I'm not sure, but I think I failed to mention that songs can also be a form of prayer. When I am feeling down or feel the need to be alone with God, I often turn to music as often times, the words can be so powerful. Let me share with you one of my favorites and how it saved my life:

"You Never Walk Alone" I used to hear this song all of the time while growing up and never really paid attention to the words. I have a tendency towards depression and while in college went through a very dark period and I was contemplating suicide. Actually, I was pretty sure I was going to do it and decided to go to church one last time.

I attended on campus at the Ecumenical Centerand did attend regularly. It always amazed me how packed the Catholic services were with students. The music was always great and the words to the songs were always very special to me.

Normally, instead of a choir, we had "song leaders" which were in the front and consisted of several vocalists with the most beautiful voices, guitars, flutes, piano and I can't remember for sure but I think drums and a horn. On this particular Sunday, there was a guest vocalist. I very clearly remember sitting there with my head down and tears flowing from my eyes because I was so sad and felt I knew what I needed to do to get rid of the pain in was in. All of a sudden, I heard the words, "When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high and don't be afraid of the dark. At the end of the dark is a golden sky..." I remember slowly looking up and realized that God was speaking to me! Now I had heard this in the past but never heard it in a Catholic Church and as I stated, had never paid attention to the words. But all of a sudden, the meaning of this song was very clear to me and I feel that God put me there to pull me out of my depression and to remind me that he ws there beside me all along. That I am never alone. That realization honestly came to me in a matter of seconds and it was crystal clear.

I guess you could say this is my favorite song  and I refer to it as "the song that saved me". To me, those words are so  powerful and to this day, it is still my "go to" song when I am going through a rough period and need a reminder of God's love.

Other favorites (in no particular order):
How Great is Our God
Hear My Heart
Be Not Afraid
Here I am Lord
God is So Good
We Shall Behold Him
What a Friend we have in Jesus

These are just a few (all of these can be down loaded from ITunes)

I would love to hear about some of yours and if there is a story behind it that you would like to share, please do!

Prayer

What is prayer? The first prayer I learned was as a child and it was "Now I Lay me down to sleep"...
For a long time as I was growing up, I felt that prayer was only those words that someone taught you. But as I got older, I realized that prayer is much more than that and that I did it often.

Prayer is simply talking to God. You can get help from words someone else has written but I feel it's best when you use your own words. I realized as a child, that I talked to God all of the time--almost as if he were sitting right next to me. All you need to do is speak to Him from your heart.

I believe that God speaks to all of us and answers us in ways He knows we will understand. That will be different for me than it is for you. I believe that until you accept this, you may be missing out on a lot of His answers! You have to listen very carefully and recognize when he is talking to you and giving you an answer.

One area where my mom and I disagree is about this. Especially as I was growing up, she always felt that I would say that God answered me as a way to justify something that I wanted to do. What she didn't realize was that wasn't always the case, rather that  when I felt I had my answer, I could move forward with confidence and be at peace because I knew what I was supposed to do. I didn't question it or complain and that is why she felt that everything I did was what I wanted to do. (hope that made sense!)

God will always hear your prayers and he will always answer; you won't always get the answer that you want but it will be the answer that you need and that is for your own good. He will not always answer when you want him to but he will always answer in time. Just listen. He will make the answers evident if you just listen and learn to recognize his voice.

Do You Believe in God Mommy?

I was raised in a Christian home and cannot remember a time that I did not know about God. I was introduced to the Bible, Adam & Eve, Cain & Able, Noah & the Ark, all at a very young age--preschool. Even though we had Santa in our home, we knew that Christmas was Christ's birthday, that Jesus died on Good Friday and he rose from the dead on Easter Sunday.

I will share to different situations that really surprised me and made me even more appreciative of my Christian upbringing.

The first is from a tv show I was watching a few years ago. A little girl, about the age of 8 came home from school and asked her mommy if she believed in God. My first reaction was disbelief. Disbelief that a child of that age did not actually know if her mom believed in God. Her mom had never introduced God to her. How incredibly sad.

The next was about 3 years ago while at work. I was speaking with a co-worker about something that we were planning. As we were planning the date, I reminded her to keep in mind that Good Friday was coming up. Now this was a nice woman in her early 40's and she asked me what Good Friday was and then what Easter Sunday was. I am very good at hiding my reactions and I did not want to make her feel stupid or anything so I simply replied that Good Friday was the day Jesus was crucified and Easter was the day her rose from the dead. I just couldn't believe it and once again felt very sad for her. She explained to me that her parents were very anti-religion because their parents rammed it down their throats. So they weren't going to expose their children to it at all and if they were so inclined to do so, discover it on their own. I just couldn't believe it and one again felt so sad for her.

Sad for her but it made me very appreciative of the way I was raised. Grateful that my parents taught me these things at such a young age and I never, ever had to wonder what their beliefs were and that we could have good discussions about it. Yes, even at age 6, I was having these types of discussions. I went to Catholic School from kindergarten through High School and would love to sometimes discuss what I'd learned in school that day. 

My dad died in 1988 but my  mom is still alive. We don't hold all of the same religious views anymore but that's ok. She planted the seed in me. It is the greatest gift I have ever received. I have been through quite a bit in my life---starting in childhood. It is because of this "gift" called faith, that I was able to get through it all. It has carried me through everything--through all of my peaks and all of my many, many valleys. It remains the most precious and most important gift I own. It is the one gift that I can "regift" but still keep! No one can steal it from me and if I lose it, it won't be for very long because it will be right under my nose. It is the one gift that will last me a lifetime and that I cherish so very much.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness--such an interesting word and concept and in my opinion a word with such ambiguity. So many definitions and so many interpretations of definitions. What is forgiveness really?

I believe in order to truly define what forgiveness is, you have to first determine what it is not:

Is it forgetting how someone has wronged you? The phrase "forgive and forget" gives us the impression that is exactly what it is. No, it is not. Perhaps if it is something petty such as holding a grudge (hmm...holding a grudge. Could that be a way to determine if you are witholding forgiveness?) because your sibling took your car without permission when you were a child and crashed it. In my opinion, that would be petty. Yes, they were wrong for not asking to borrow it but the accident was an accident. What if you gave permission and they got in the accident? Would that change things?

Several years ago, a local radio station would read a from either Ann Landers or "Dear Abby's advice column. (I can't remember which it was.) One day while listening, they read a letter from someone who had written in. It had a very powerful message and I will never, ever forget it:

The man wrote in to say that while growing up, he lived in a pretty wealthy neighborhood. It was quite common in this neighborhood, that upon graduating from high school, the sons would get a new car. A few weeks before graduation, this particular guy and his father went to go look at and pick out a car. They found one that he fell in love with and his father also approved of the car.

Graduation day came. After returning home after the ceremony, he waited anxiously for the car or to at least to receive the keys. When his father came to him to give him his gift, it was a package and said, "Happy Graduation son. I am so proud of you!" The son opened the package and in it he found a brand new Bible. He was so enraged and without saying a word, he threw the Bible across the room, stormed out, packed his bags and left. He did stay in touch with his mother and told her repeatedly that he would never forgive his father for what he had done and never spoke to him again.

Many years later, he was notified that his father had died. He went home to help his mother with the arrangements and eventually helped her to go through his dad's personal belongings. While doing so, he came across the Bible that he was given by his dad as a gift those many years ago. As he picked it up, an envelope fell out of it. He opened the envelope and inside was a cashier's check with his graduation date as the date, made out to the the car dealer for the amount of the car.

Everytime I think of that story it makes me so incredibly sad. I cannot even imagine the kind of guilt he must have felt for hanging on the the anger for so long for what I consider to be something extremely petty.

Forgiveness is not making light of the situation or excusing someone for their actions. Here is one definition of what forgiveness is that I read some time ago:  It has the meaning of "letting go". It means that we are not going to allow the experiences of the past to dominate our future and to prevent us from becoming all that God has planned we should become. There may well be memories we are unable to put out of mind, but we choose not to allow them to control our attitudes and behaviour in the future, even toward those who may be responsible for those memories.

Overall, I like that definition but do have some issue with the "choose not to allow them to control our attitudes" part. I believe there are hurts against us that can really affect you for life. I mean very serious ones.  They can affect your attidtude towards others in that you may not trust and while you may forgive the person , you may feel uncomfortable or even intimidated or scared if in the same room with them or in their presence in any way. I don't believe you are necessarily "allowing" them to control your attitude but some things can cut you pretty deeply.

Are there offenses that are unforgiveable? I believe there are some offenses that are very difficult to forgive and that may take you a long time to get to that point, but they can be forgiven. Examples of these would be someone intentionally physically harming you or someone you love. Murder, rape, abuse; those are all very difficult but I think what helps is if you recognize that forgiving someone doesn't mean letting that person into your life. It also helps to forgive someone if they show remorse or apologize.

There is so much more to be said about this topic and I'm sure I will do so on another day, but for now, that gives us all a lot to think about.

What do you think?