Modest Proposals

December 11, 2001

A Modest Proposal: Give God A Break

Have you ever wondered how God decides which side to take? If God were to take all of the entreaties made to Him/Her/It over the millennia to favor one person or group over another, I suspect that He would have a headache of cosmic proportions. How in the Universe could the One take action on all of the conflicting requests, prayers, and beseeching that gets tossed His way? Americans ask for God's help and intervention to punish the September 11 perpetrators while at the same time, militant Muslims entreat Allah to strike down the infidel Americans. How is the Almighty going to choose?

I don't know for sure, but I think that He simply smiles benignly and ignores all conflicting and contradictory requests, letting the chips or bodies fall where they may. Let's examine this dilemma a little further.

Athletic teams pray to God to help them defeat the team in the next locker room which is simultaneously making their own request for victory. Corporations ask God to help with their mergers and acquisitions, and the all holy bottom line at the expense of their competitors. Various religions exhort their Gods to deliver the heathen, heretofore overseen by some other Gods, into their camps. The all time favorite is probably asking God for triumph over one's enemies. How does He sort all of this out?

It seems early on that God favored the ancient Jews, but they seemed to have slid from grace in the last few hundred years, and especially in the last century. Makes me wonder if the adage, "The winners write history," may have originated during the time of the Old Testament? It is also makes me wonder about the proclamations of generals and heads of state of victorious nations who proclaimed that God was on their side (and hence the big win). Of course, the loosing nation suffered enormously in the process, but they deserved that because obviously God turned His back on them. Seems like it would have been simpler for God to have flipped the divine coin and whichever nation lost had to give the other country whatever it wanted. Since war is financial in nature, a massive transfer of assets through the Swiss (of course) would cleanly and neatly solve the dispute.

If you are still with me at this point, I am presenting a huge revelation: God does not take sides. If you don't believe me, ask Neale Donald Walsch since he has an inside line to the Almighty. It seems that all of this pitching of one's plea to God is simply about having something be different than it is. That is to say that we don't like what is happening and would very much like for it to be different, thank you very much. Gosh, whatever happened to taking responsibility for ourselves? I know that is not a popular sentiment with either the enlightened or unenlightened.

The enlightened burn a little incense, mumble a mantra, and ask God to help them out in their time of need which is most of the time, almost all of it, if we discount sleeping. The unenlightened see themselves as victimized underdogs and ask God's help to kick the butts of those who victimized them. It's rough for agnostics and atheists since they don't have anyone to turn to so they blame the universe in general.

Here's a novel idea: What if we are all responsible for everything that happens to us? What a revolutionary approach to simplifying a complex problem - sort of like having a universal language or currency. Granted it would make times rough for attorneys specializing in lawsuits; a good chunk of California's population would be out of work. If we all took responsibility for ourselves, then we would pretty much see the end of war, divorce, murder, most laws, lying, cheating, and abuse. That sounds pretty good to me. Blaming other people for our life never did anyone any good in the long run. Its like waiting for the anesthesia to wear off after having a tooth pulled. I am numb now, but it's going to wear off soon, and then…

In his classic book, The Four Agreements, Toltec surgeon and shaman, don Miguel Ruiz describes one of the four agreements as, "Don't take anything personally." Those four simple words are the gateway to living responsibly (at last) and in harmony with each other and the Earth. If you have not read his book, I highly recommend it.

Moving to a conclusion, there is the question about the utility of prayer and talking to God. Should we do it? Yes, of course, and it can be a powerful practice IF God is not put in the position of choosing you or someone else over another. My Modest Proposal for this last month of 2001 is: Give God A Break, don't ask Him/Her/It to let your team win. Instead ask Him to support you in having everyone win. The odds are very, very good that He will do just that. Try it.

Comments and counter proposals are welcome. Please email ron@RonMcCray.com.

A new Modest Proposal is published on the Internet the 11th of each month.

Copyright 2001 Ron McCray

A Note of Thanks

November was the inaugural edition of this newsletter. The response was overwhelming (to me) and almost universally positive. For all of you who wrote, I thank you, and I apologize for not responding personally to each of you. Several hundred emails are a lot of responses to answer, and there was not enough time to do so. Please know that I did read every one of your responses and took to heart what you told me. There were so many blessings in your words that I am honored beyond what I thought possible. Please continue to respond in the future; your encouragement (and disagreement) is fuel for me to continue.

 

Email Ron: Ron@RonMcCray.com

© Ron McCray 2002 - 2004