Thursday, July 23, 2009

Laughing With God



No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one's laughing at God when it's gotten real late and their kid's not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one's laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they're mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say "We've got some bad new, sir,"
No one's laughing at God when there's a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one's laughing at God when they've lost all they got and they don't know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize that the last sight they'll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one's laughing at God when they're saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
Or when the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head you think that they're about to choke

God can be funny
When told he'll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one's laughing at God in a hospital
No one's laughing at God in a war

No one's laughing at God when they're starving or freezing or so very poor

No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
No one's laughing at God
We're all laughing with God

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

God is on both sides

It's a concept that changes everything but I'm not sure how.

God is on both sides of every transaction.

I'm thinking of the kinds of transactions that cause people to doubt
God's very existence or at least his loving nature. Things like
rapes, assaults, beatings, attacks, aggressions of all sorts. If God
is equally vested in the eternal well-being of both the perpetrator
and the victim, if God views each of them as a beloved child, albeit
perhaps a severely wayward child - how does it change things?

It has me wondering who's really "doing" what to whom? Who really is
in charge of the transaction? What if through the so-called victim,
God actually is accomplishing something sacred beyond our comprehension. Something involving the salvation and sanctification of all?

What if in some cosmic sense the so-called victim is actually an accomplice?

A strange idea? For sure. One that get's even stranger when we include the suffering of animals under human jurisdiction.

Yet, isn't something like this what was going on at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ?