I posted this in anothersection of the forums and it recieved no response. I guess I posted it in the wrong place. So, I'll post it here.
Chat With God
I've talked to him at length, on many occasions. I asked him how things were going and He said that healthwise he was fine, but lately He's been emotionally spent. In fact, He's gone on at great length (and with the vastness of God that can sometimes be a very, very, very long time.)
I said, "Dear God, what's wrong? Why are you so down?"
He cleared his throat, or maybe I was hearing thunder, because when He began to speak, His eyes opened wide. An enormous bolt of lightening, lit up the sky, and he said: "Oh, I'm tired. My emotions have been on a wild ummmm, what is it you mortals call it? It is like I've been on a rollercoaster ride with the human race." He looked down at the ground and pointed, as He continued, "The planet Earth, as you so eloquently call it, or "The Third ball from Yellow 4" as I do, has sooooo many ups and downs, ups and downs, that it makes me dizzy."
I was getting concerned. Was this White bearded old man really God? Or was I losing my mind? I decided that if the latter was true, then what harm could there be in talking to Him?
I asked, "Can you elaborate. I mean, what exactly bothers you about us?"
He cleared his throat again and a heavy mist began to blow in from a valley that I had never noticed before. "What troubles Me young man is that when I look down on a warm summer day, and see little bird bringing a worm to her young. I am saddened." His look became forlorn and distant, but He snapped out of it and continued, "Yes, yes. I know; you're wondering why a bird feeding her young would upset me - after all I'm God ,right?"
I began to nod in agreement when suddenly He gave me a scornful look, as raindrops began to fall from the freely from the sky. As if catching Himself, His scowl turned into a sad smile and He added, "Sorry, I sometimes forget that you're only human, and you haven't the ability to keep up sometimes - it's one of those blocks I put into your brains. Could you imagine if you could all read each other's minds? OOOOHH HOOOO! The khaos that would erupt down here. ahhhh, but I stray. As I was saying, you could never understand the pain and agony I feel when I see birds eating worms. Those are My creatures. My creations. Little do your scientists realize, they do feel pain."
He looked up and the rain began to fall a little harder, landing against the brim of His furrowed brow. "Trust me on this; they feel more pain than you do. They just haven't the ability to express it in terms that you can understand, ummm yet."
I wondered what He meant by that, for a second, as I put down my watering hose. I was beginning to get the feeling it was going to rain rather substantially. I wanted to thank Him for the rain, but I didn't want to sound condescendingly naive.
"What do you mean 'yet', God?" I asked, probably sounding like a school child on his first day of class.
He looked away, as if holding some information back, and looked around at my yellowed lawn. And He changed the subject. "Looks like your lawn really needed the rain." Then returning His eye upon me He said, "I cannot reveal too much to you. If I did, it would create utter pandemonium throughout the World. People would make more money off of religion than they do today. There would be more World hunger, more disease, more pestilence, fire and brimstone raining down on your heads, cats and dogs sleeping together. Ok, the fire and brimstone...a little too much?"
I shook my head, then nodded, shook my head again, and looked down - not knowing how to react. I was frightened.
"Don't be scared, I'm not that kind of god. I'm pretty easy going. A lot of men are making a lot of rules in my name, and most of the time they are wrong...wrong...wrong. I don't punish, get even or try to make you feel guilty - though some religions teach that way. I'm more of a loving, jolly kind of...ummm, what word would you use???.... entity. I've never been the power hungry type. Free Will. Yes, I know. It's a Rush tune, as well. I inspired Mr. Peart to write the lyrics. He may not want to admit my existance, but I know the inner man, trust me, he believes in Me."
"Anyway, back to point! I know the bird needs the worm - I made it so, didn't I? What hurts is that there are so many worse things happening down here, that I get to the point that the highest level of pain and suffering that I can handle, in a micro-instant, is the bird/worm thing."
The rain began to teem, and I noticed everything began to soak; the grass, the trees, the garden. Everything was getting drenched. Except for me. I was as dry as an oven on 500 degrees, in the middle of the Gobi desert. But I felt comfortable.
As if reading my mind, He interrupted my thoughts and said, "Oh that? It's a little trick I made up one second while I was bored. A group of kids were on their way to play a baseball game and their Mom's mini-van had a flat. They all got out in their uniforms to change the flat, just as it started pouring rain, just like it is now. It would be a quick, but drenching rain. I didn't want the boys to get their uniforms wet before their game so I helped them out. I can keep you dry and safe from rain, sleet, snow or whatever...
"It worked. The boys stayed dry, fixed the flat and played their game. I was determined to help them out. You see two of them, sometime in the future, were destined to go on to play in the Major Leagues and become excessive financial donors to various youth organizations, and sick children funds. That game that they were to play that day was an important game to them."
"Well, their coach had a weird thing about clean uniforms and he would never have let them into the game with a wet, dirty uniform. So, I came up with the 'Keep a person dry' trick. It always works," He looked up again into the sky with a bit of a scowl and turned back at me adding, "There were a couple of Major League scouts at that game. The one kid had no control, but a fastball that was lights out. He ended up striking out over 5,000 hitters."
"You really know a lot about baseball, don't you?" I asked Him.
"A little." He replied.
Streams of water were flowing over the lawn and down my driveway. Again, I thought of thanking Him for the much needed downpour, when He said, "What I was going to say, before getting off the subject, was that I see so many terrible things happening down here, it's becoming difficult to keep up with all of the desperate prayers people are asking of Me."
"Oppressed people in lands that contain leaders that were once oppressed theselves - less than a century ago. How quickly people forget. It makes me so sad, I could cry," He said, lowering His gaze and His head.
I looked up, like a child, correlating His sadness with the teeming rain, wondering if He becomes any sadder, will we get flooded???
"Corruption...so many people that hold power over the poor and weak and they treat them like the don't exist. Governments forcing people to do things that are against their core beliefs. Disease...Man has access to such great wonders of science and yet those with the means to cure, fail the sick - they are left to suffer. Famine...starving children, dying daily - yet so many people are wasting food in other places," He wiped the rain from His brow, as I finally realized that He was keeping me dry while He, Himself was getting drenched.
I interrupted Him and asked innocently, "Is there anything that you can do about all of these calamities?"
"Do? I do what I can without getting too involved. Free Will, remember. That's been My policy for, ohhh at least...ummm, it's been...well, a long time now. I answer prayers in My own time. The thing is that as mortals, you don't understand the grand scheme of things. For every negative, there is a positive. Good, bad and some things in between. If I tried to explain to you why I allow certain things to happen, you would never understand it. Let me just say that I am limited in the amount of events that I can safely intervene in without disrupting the entire space/time continuum. It's some hi-tech stuff and I am not at liberty to reveal it all to you, right now. All I can say is that you'll know one day." He winked at me and I got the feeling I shouldn't probe that subject too much.
"Is there hope for Mankind?" I asked Him, hoping I might get a little glimpse into the future from Him.
"Hope? Hope? There's always that. What would your lives be without hope? With hope though, come great effort. People need to help each other. People need to sacrifice for their fellow man. Give more than they recieve. The rewards are plentiful. Most of them are personal rewards. I don't think people should be offered too much for things they ought to be doing for others, in the first place. The rewards are mainly felt in the heart. And of course, there's heaven. That is the eternal reward."
"Heaven? What's it like? Is it glorious?" I asked eagerly.
"You really want to know a lot, don't you?" He asked, and added, "I can tell you it is not unlike anything you could never imagine."
My head was spinning with that sentence. I was vexed. "So, it's cool, huh?"
"Oh yeah."
I looked around my front yard again and worried about the basement taking in water, and He said, "Don't worry, I think it'll stop before you're flooded out." He looked up into the sky and shook his fist adding, "If Mother Nature ever decides to put an end to this." Lightening lit up the sky, again.
"Ok, Ok. I'm sorry, I won't try telling you what to do any more, I promise," He said looking to the clouds. To me, He said, "She's a cranky old bat, but I love Her."
Chat With God
I've talked to him at length, on many occasions. I asked him how things were going and He said that healthwise he was fine, but lately He's been emotionally spent. In fact, He's gone on at great length (and with the vastness of God that can sometimes be a very, very, very long time.)
I said, "Dear God, what's wrong? Why are you so down?"
He cleared his throat, or maybe I was hearing thunder, because when He began to speak, His eyes opened wide. An enormous bolt of lightening, lit up the sky, and he said: "Oh, I'm tired. My emotions have been on a wild ummmm, what is it you mortals call it? It is like I've been on a rollercoaster ride with the human race." He looked down at the ground and pointed, as He continued, "The planet Earth, as you so eloquently call it, or "The Third ball from Yellow 4" as I do, has sooooo many ups and downs, ups and downs, that it makes me dizzy."
I was getting concerned. Was this White bearded old man really God? Or was I losing my mind? I decided that if the latter was true, then what harm could there be in talking to Him?
I asked, "Can you elaborate. I mean, what exactly bothers you about us?"
He cleared his throat again and a heavy mist began to blow in from a valley that I had never noticed before. "What troubles Me young man is that when I look down on a warm summer day, and see little bird bringing a worm to her young. I am saddened." His look became forlorn and distant, but He snapped out of it and continued, "Yes, yes. I know; you're wondering why a bird feeding her young would upset me - after all I'm God ,right?"
I began to nod in agreement when suddenly He gave me a scornful look, as raindrops began to fall from the freely from the sky. As if catching Himself, His scowl turned into a sad smile and He added, "Sorry, I sometimes forget that you're only human, and you haven't the ability to keep up sometimes - it's one of those blocks I put into your brains. Could you imagine if you could all read each other's minds? OOOOHH HOOOO! The khaos that would erupt down here. ahhhh, but I stray. As I was saying, you could never understand the pain and agony I feel when I see birds eating worms. Those are My creatures. My creations. Little do your scientists realize, they do feel pain."
He looked up and the rain began to fall a little harder, landing against the brim of His furrowed brow. "Trust me on this; they feel more pain than you do. They just haven't the ability to express it in terms that you can understand, ummm yet."
I wondered what He meant by that, for a second, as I put down my watering hose. I was beginning to get the feeling it was going to rain rather substantially. I wanted to thank Him for the rain, but I didn't want to sound condescendingly naive.
"What do you mean 'yet', God?" I asked, probably sounding like a school child on his first day of class.
He looked away, as if holding some information back, and looked around at my yellowed lawn. And He changed the subject. "Looks like your lawn really needed the rain." Then returning His eye upon me He said, "I cannot reveal too much to you. If I did, it would create utter pandemonium throughout the World. People would make more money off of religion than they do today. There would be more World hunger, more disease, more pestilence, fire and brimstone raining down on your heads, cats and dogs sleeping together. Ok, the fire and brimstone...a little too much?"
I shook my head, then nodded, shook my head again, and looked down - not knowing how to react. I was frightened.
"Don't be scared, I'm not that kind of god. I'm pretty easy going. A lot of men are making a lot of rules in my name, and most of the time they are wrong...wrong...wrong. I don't punish, get even or try to make you feel guilty - though some religions teach that way. I'm more of a loving, jolly kind of...ummm, what word would you use???.... entity. I've never been the power hungry type. Free Will. Yes, I know. It's a Rush tune, as well. I inspired Mr. Peart to write the lyrics. He may not want to admit my existance, but I know the inner man, trust me, he believes in Me."
"Anyway, back to point! I know the bird needs the worm - I made it so, didn't I? What hurts is that there are so many worse things happening down here, that I get to the point that the highest level of pain and suffering that I can handle, in a micro-instant, is the bird/worm thing."
The rain began to teem, and I noticed everything began to soak; the grass, the trees, the garden. Everything was getting drenched. Except for me. I was as dry as an oven on 500 degrees, in the middle of the Gobi desert. But I felt comfortable.
As if reading my mind, He interrupted my thoughts and said, "Oh that? It's a little trick I made up one second while I was bored. A group of kids were on their way to play a baseball game and their Mom's mini-van had a flat. They all got out in their uniforms to change the flat, just as it started pouring rain, just like it is now. It would be a quick, but drenching rain. I didn't want the boys to get their uniforms wet before their game so I helped them out. I can keep you dry and safe from rain, sleet, snow or whatever...
"It worked. The boys stayed dry, fixed the flat and played their game. I was determined to help them out. You see two of them, sometime in the future, were destined to go on to play in the Major Leagues and become excessive financial donors to various youth organizations, and sick children funds. That game that they were to play that day was an important game to them."
"Well, their coach had a weird thing about clean uniforms and he would never have let them into the game with a wet, dirty uniform. So, I came up with the 'Keep a person dry' trick. It always works," He looked up again into the sky with a bit of a scowl and turned back at me adding, "There were a couple of Major League scouts at that game. The one kid had no control, but a fastball that was lights out. He ended up striking out over 5,000 hitters."
"You really know a lot about baseball, don't you?" I asked Him.
"A little." He replied.
Streams of water were flowing over the lawn and down my driveway. Again, I thought of thanking Him for the much needed downpour, when He said, "What I was going to say, before getting off the subject, was that I see so many terrible things happening down here, it's becoming difficult to keep up with all of the desperate prayers people are asking of Me."
"Oppressed people in lands that contain leaders that were once oppressed theselves - less than a century ago. How quickly people forget. It makes me so sad, I could cry," He said, lowering His gaze and His head.
I looked up, like a child, correlating His sadness with the teeming rain, wondering if He becomes any sadder, will we get flooded???
"Corruption...so many people that hold power over the poor and weak and they treat them like the don't exist. Governments forcing people to do things that are against their core beliefs. Disease...Man has access to such great wonders of science and yet those with the means to cure, fail the sick - they are left to suffer. Famine...starving children, dying daily - yet so many people are wasting food in other places," He wiped the rain from His brow, as I finally realized that He was keeping me dry while He, Himself was getting drenched.
I interrupted Him and asked innocently, "Is there anything that you can do about all of these calamities?"
"Do? I do what I can without getting too involved. Free Will, remember. That's been My policy for, ohhh at least...ummm, it's been...well, a long time now. I answer prayers in My own time. The thing is that as mortals, you don't understand the grand scheme of things. For every negative, there is a positive. Good, bad and some things in between. If I tried to explain to you why I allow certain things to happen, you would never understand it. Let me just say that I am limited in the amount of events that I can safely intervene in without disrupting the entire space/time continuum. It's some hi-tech stuff and I am not at liberty to reveal it all to you, right now. All I can say is that you'll know one day." He winked at me and I got the feeling I shouldn't probe that subject too much.
"Is there hope for Mankind?" I asked Him, hoping I might get a little glimpse into the future from Him.
"Hope? Hope? There's always that. What would your lives be without hope? With hope though, come great effort. People need to help each other. People need to sacrifice for their fellow man. Give more than they recieve. The rewards are plentiful. Most of them are personal rewards. I don't think people should be offered too much for things they ought to be doing for others, in the first place. The rewards are mainly felt in the heart. And of course, there's heaven. That is the eternal reward."
"Heaven? What's it like? Is it glorious?" I asked eagerly.
"You really want to know a lot, don't you?" He asked, and added, "I can tell you it is not unlike anything you could never imagine."
My head was spinning with that sentence. I was vexed. "So, it's cool, huh?"
"Oh yeah."
I looked around my front yard again and worried about the basement taking in water, and He said, "Don't worry, I think it'll stop before you're flooded out." He looked up into the sky and shook his fist adding, "If Mother Nature ever decides to put an end to this." Lightening lit up the sky, again.
"Ok, Ok. I'm sorry, I won't try telling you what to do any more, I promise," He said looking to the clouds. To me, He said, "She's a cranky old bat, but I love Her."
