Praise Be!

 

I was giving my neighbor a ride to

somewhere he needed to go. That

was several years ago, and that place

escapes me now. It is of no conse-

quence to this story anyhow.

It was in Albuquerque, New

Mexico, that I know. This fellow

was a follower of a religious cult

known as The Way.

He had told me just enough about

it for me to know that he and his

fellow believers had to be desper-

ately nuts to buy into the BS they

had all been fed by their leaders.

For instance, every stop light we

came to turned green just as we

reached the intersection. My pas-

senger told me that he had asked

his god to change the light from

red to let us through. And viola,

a miracle, he said. God listens to

those who believe. Praise be!

And I got to thinking, what about

god helping all the really hurting

people out there, the hungry, the

poor, the lonely, the suicidal de-

pressed? Why should he care

about stupid stuff like changing

street lights from red to green

just to please an idiot like you

who claimed to “believe?”

If there was a god who listened to

and provided for all of your petty

requests, why in hell was it you

were riding with little old me in

my stinking, beat up jalopy? You

could have prayed for a Rolls Royce

limousine, and could have been

feeding a fancy chauffeur all your

inane bullshit instead of me?

Got me to thinking about that

which I was brought up to believe:

Whether your god or mine, he surely

must work in mysterious ways.

                 -30-

Chris Hanch 1-19-2021