WELCOME TO PRAYERS OF VIGILANCE

THE VigilanceVoice

The Prayers Below Are Ecumenical In Design.  We hope not to offend any religion or belief system, and pray you will see the Children's Voice in any prayer offered to the Great Power known as God by many different names and through many different customs.  But the God we offer our prayers to is the one who believes in more Good than Bad, more Right than Wrong, and more Justice than Injustice.

Below is a conversation with God, as we see God.   We are sure, "more will be revealed!" 

Conversations With God

October 5, 2001

“Good Morning, Sir.”

“You don’t have to call Me Sir, my son, you can call Me God Sir!”  God laughed uproariously.  He pointed at the ancient, wooden chair for me sit.

“Okay, God Sir!”

“I was just kidding, Cliff.  Can’t you take a joke?”

“No Sir.  I Mean, yes Sir.   I mean, I’m a little intimidated by your presence, Sir.”

“Yeah, most people are.  That’s too bad.  I’m really everyone’s buddy and pal and friend.  But people think because of who I am, they have to stand back, keep their distance, kowtow to ME.”

“But if you’re All Powerful, Omnipotent, shouldn’t they respect your power?”

“You mean, like they do a Terrorist?  Like I could strike them dead with lightening if they pissed ME off?”  He laughed again.  The earth shook.  I grabbed hold of the chair’s arms and felt the worn indention of others’ fingers who had gripped the chair before me.

“Well, I didn’t mean it fearfully, Sir.  I meant it respectfully.  Respectful of your power, Sir.”

“That’s absurd, Cliff.  So many people pretend to be respectful when they are really just afraid of ME.   They treat ME like I had a gun in my pocket, and if they say or do anything wrong, I’m going to pull it out and shoot them.  Or strike them with some terrible disease or cast a plague upon the earth.  Or, most recently, that I let the Terrorists kill a lot of innocent people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.   It’s not easy being blamed for every disaster...for every evil act of mankind...for every starving child...for every problem people have.”

“You sound frustrated, God, er, excuse me, Sir.”

“Call ME Buddy, Cliff.  I want to be your Buddy, not your executioner, or your torture master, or the cause of your pain and problems.  Let ME just be your Buddy.  Can you call ME, Buddy?”

“I’ll try, Sir.”

“Say it, Cliff.  Say, ‘How ya doin’, Buddy.’ Give it a try.”

“Will you strike ME with lightening if I don’t?”   I grabbed hold of the chair arms tightly,  not sure what His response would be.  God stared at me for what seemed an eternity, then slapped His great knee.  His Voice boomed so loudly through the Heavens the Angels jumped off their perches and white, fluffy feathers filled the air.  God swatted at one that hovered near his nose.

“That was good, Cliff.   Now you’re getting the idea.”

I relaxed--a little.  The sweat stopped leaking out my pores.

“I thought you wanted people to serve you, God...er...Buddy...and that we were to honor you...bow and genuflect and kneel or face the east and supplicate?”

“I didn’t make up those rules.   Some human did.   Over time, they made up lots of rules.  My God, you’d think that’s all I had time to do...to write rulebooks for people to pray to ME.”  God folded his arms across his chest, his face sour.

“You didn’t create Islam?  Christianity?   Buddhism?  The Jews? The Mormons? The....“  His Voice cut me short.

“Cliff, think about it for a minute.  Why would I, Mister Omnipotent, All Powerful Master Of The Universe, the Chief Executive Officer of all Creators...why...why would I divide myself into conflicting, hard-to-understand parts so everyone would be confused about the definition of God?  It would be like cutting off my hand to spite my ear.   Is that the right way to say it....?”

God leaned forward.

“No, Sir...I mean, Buddy...it’s cut off your hand to spite your face.”

“Why, that doesn’t make any sense.  Just like it makes no sense I would create a lot of different ways to honor ME.   Creating so many religious beliefs would be like you talking to ME and every other word is in a different language.  I think you humans have developed about six-hundred of them--languages, dialects.  You make communicating with one another very hard.   And human kind has done a superb job of mucking up religion.   It’s been turned into exclusive clubs, like those golf courses and private clubs that keep out people of different colors...my way or the highway...terrible thinking.  Absolute confusion.”

“If you didn’t make up all those religions, how come they still exist?

“Lucifer.  The Fallen Angel.  I think Lucifer came up with the idea of religion.   It divided and conquered my simplicity.   It pitted one religion against another.  It was the first act of Spiritual Terrorism.  See, Lucifer figured he’s divide and conquer.  If he got all these different religions to fight about Me, then he’d win them over because I couldn’t please everybody.  And when things happened like the Terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center or the Pentagon...everyone would look up and blame me....Where Was God?   How come He let this happen?   Yeah, it was Lucifer’s work for sure...killing people under my name...can’t get more evil than that, right Cliff?”

“Well, Buddy, if you’re Omnipotent, All Powerful, the Creator, why don’t you just change everything back to how it was in the beginning.  Just have One God, one Religion?”

“I can’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I locked out the program.”

“Locked out the program?  I don’t understand.”  I leaned forward, timidly, of course.   God didn’t seem to notice.

“Cliff, when you’re All Powerful as I am, you have to be cautious.  Power corrupts, right?  You’ve heard that phrase I’m sure, haven’t you?”

‘Yes, Sir...”

“Buddy!  Buddy!”  God shouted the words at me.  I held on tightly. “Give ME some slack, Cliff.  Call me Buddy!”   As His Voice roared, I grabbed my chair and gripped it with all my might, fearful the gush of wind from his mouth might hurl me into another galaxy.

“Buddy!  Buddy!  Buddy!”  I yelled the words as loud and fast as I could.  Finally, God sat back, relaxed, and smiled.   The Fear in me faded as his eyes seemed to cradle me like a child, swaying me to and fro so the pounding of my heart slowed and my adrenaline oozed back to its waiting chamber.

“Sorry about that, Cliff.  But I get frustrated too.  My apologies.  I’ll work on restraint of tongue.    But getting back to the question about locking out the program.  I owe you an explanation.  When I gave you humans Free Will,  I thought a lot about what would happen if you denied ME as being All Powerful, Omnipotent, your sole and singular Creator.   I initially figured I’d change you back into simple creatures of instincts like the birds and ants and snakes and bugs if I got displeased with your behavior. Instincts are easily managed, you just watch your Creations follow them.   Like watching one of those toy electric trains go around and around and around and around in the same circle.

“But I didn’t do that with you guys. Instead, I  gave you a bonus to your instincts which you all call Free Will.  That Mazlov guy called it a hierarchy of needs, some triangle description of ME, like I was a science of the mind.  I laughed when I saw it.  But, at lest it was simple, to the point.  Ego, I think he put at the top.  Or something he called Self Actualization.  Like, where was I?  But I didn’t say anything.  He had the idea.  No other Creature I’ve ever created has the power of unlimited choice that you have.  I gave you the power to accept or reject ME.   That was very risky.”

“But it’s worked out, hasn’t it...”  I paused, careful to remember the word Buddy so I wouldn’t be tossed about by his reprimand...”you’re pleased with it, right Buddy?

God looked at me like I was an ant.  He just continued what he was saying before I interrupted his commentary.

“All the other creatures just do their jobs, Cliff.  They all have specific things to do so they work in perfect harmony.   I think you call it ecological balance.   Their primary mission is--to survive.  To grow stronger.  To propagate.   Every creature leaves every other creature alone unless its  hungry, or threatened.   It’s a nice system, but very boring.  Very, very, very boring.”

“Boring?   I don’t understand.”

“Just imagine your ME and you wake up every morning and watch ants crawl around, or bees flying from flower to flower, or trees growing, or sprouts of grass shoving through the crust of the earth, or creatures evolving from one thing to another to maximize survival.   A place for everything, and everything in its place.    Boring, Cliff.  Boring.  Boring. Boring.”

He paused and shifted his weight.  “Ever go into someone’s home where everything looks like a museum...everything is exactly where it should be?   You feel uncomfortable, constrained, uneasy you’ll muss up things, don’t you?   The museum grows sterile after a while because it doesn’t have any character...it’s constant.  Every feel trapped in a place like that?”

I thought for minute.  “Sure.  My Aunt Dorothy was kind of like that.  I tiptoed around her house.  I was afraid to sit on the couch because I might wrinkle the fabric.  And she always was looking at you, watching what you did.  Yeah, I know that feeling.”

“Well, Cliff, when I created the world, it was like that.  Perfect order, perfect harmony.   God, it was beautiful for a while.  Then, I began to predict what would happen next because everything ran like a clock.   This bug did that...that bird flew here in the winter...the snow fell according to schedule... leaves went dormant at the precise moment they were supposed to...the prairie fires took away the old to make way for the new...floods brought new silt to parched land.  At first, it was exciting.  But eon after eon, it grew boring.  Then that meteor crashed and froze the earth and killed all the dinosaurs.   I liked the dinosaurs.  I’m glad the kids have brought them back.  they were so funny looking.  But, again, time wore me down.  After millions and millions of year--can’t remember dates too well--I was going bonkers.   Same stuff.  Over and over and over.  Ecological balance.  Ecological balance.  Why, if I hear one of those Sierra Club advocates say it one more time....”   God clipped his words.  His stern expression turned soft...  “Didn’t really mean that, Cliff...just that I get a little upset at myself for having certain resentments....perfect order is one of them...and ecological balance is a burr under my sanity saddle..”

I couldn’t help but prod Him.   I had to know the answer.  “What about locking up the program, Buddy?   That was the question.  Why can’t you just change everything back to the way it was?”

“Hmmmm...getting a little impatient with Old God, aren’t you, Cliff?’

I grabbed hold of the chair.   It was getting too easy to talk to Him.  I forgot for a moment who He was.

“Sorry, Sir.  I mean, Buddy.”

“That’s okay.   I just don’t get to talk to many people like this, Cliff.  So I ramble a bit.  Bear with ME.”

“I will.  Please, go on.”

God smiled.  When he did, I felt a glow inside.

 “So, about the lock out program. Yes.  Yes.  The lock out program. When I created humans, I first put them in Paradise.  They were just like all the other creatures.  Boring.  Not much difference between Matt and Eve in Paradise and an ant trucking around for food every day or a bird migrating or a leaf turning carbon dioxide into oxygen.  Matt and Eve just pranced around doing their job, which was basically nothing.  They ate, they pooped, they talked to the creatures, they honored me.  Why, after a while, I could tell you when Matt was going to go Number One and when Eve was going to go Number Two.   It was sooooo boring.”

I had to smile to myself.  The idea of God getting bored watching Matt and Eve relieve themselves struck me funny.

“Then I had a flash of brilliance.”  God’s face lit up.  His eyes grew wide with excitement as He talked.  “It was one of those inspirational ‘moments that you call an awakening’.  One that changes everything from how it was to a whole new way of life...like you guys are facing after the Terrorist attack...a whole new way of living, thinking, acting.”

“What was your awakening, Buddy?”   I felt my fingers tighten around the chair handle.   It was so odd calling Him Buddy.  But He didn’t flinch, or sneer.  Instead he smiled approvingly, like He liked me, enjoyed talking with me.

“Ah, my moment of brilliance.  Yes.  Yes. Well, Cliff, I jumped up with joy, excitement.  I found a solution to MY boredom.  I decided to give you humans Free Will. Choice. The right to accept or reject ME.  But, I knew I might recant.  I do have an Ego.  After all, I am the Creator!  At first, I figured if you did things I didn’t like, I’d throw your asses back in the Garden of Paradise...I’d turn you back into mere instinctive respondents.”

God took a deep breath, and rolled his eyes.  A concerned Angel fluttered off its perch, but God signaled it back to its vigilant roost.   He continued.

“But then, the more I thought about it, the, the less Omnipotent I felt.  If I was All Powerful, the One God, the True Creator, I shouldn’t fear your Free Will.   I should be willing to live with your basic Good, and trust it would overcome your Arrogance.   So, when I gave you Free Will, I locked out any changes on the program.  I can’t hit the revert button now, or ever.   I can’t bring you back to default.”

I spoke without thinking.  The words just gushed out.  “Excuse me, Buddy, do you mean you created us through a computer?”

“Not that simple, Cliff.  I use that analogy only to help you understand the concept.   But let’s say I did use a computer.  It makes it easier for you to comprehend the idea of locking out any changes in the future.  Got it, Cliff?  Comprehend?  Versten Sie?   Comprendo?”

“I got it, God...er...Buddy.”

“Get it.  Got it.  Good!   Ah, that’s MY favorite line from that Danny Kaye movie about the Dragon with the Flagon...ever see it?

“Yes, Sir...it is an old movie...”

God laughed.  “Maybe by your standards--not by mine.  I just started watching T.V. recently.  A veritable wasteland except for the Discovery and History Channels.  They’re not bad.  Discovery gives a pretty good account of MY creatures at their best and worst.”

“So, are you upset you locked out the program to take away our Free Will?”

“I wasn’t at first.   It was kind of fun watching people deny ME, argue about ME, honor ME.  Then, this story came about Eve eating a poisoned Apple, or acting in defiance of MY order--like I was some tyrant waiting for humans to screw up.  And poor Eve.  She got such a bad rap--is that how you say it--rap?”

I nodded.

“Yeah, Eve got a bad rap.  Then I heard about this mythical Lucifer fellow.  The Devil.  Some Fallen Angel who tried to take over control of Heaven.   I found it interesting at first.   Hell, I started to believe it myself because everyone was talking about it, making it sound so real, writing stories about it, telling tales about it.  I got the shivers--it was like watching a Roger Corman movie--lots of cheap B-grade thrills and spills.”

“What did you like about it, Buddy--the stories--what made you let it happen?’

“I told you I was bored, Cliff.   And this idea of Hell and Damnation--.what a great way to drive people to believe--to threaten them with Hell.  So, in a moment of unbridled egotism, I created Lucifer.  I made real this incredible myth you guys had made up.  And, I locked out the change.  Boy, was that a huge mistake.   Lucifer is a nasty guy.   And I am responsible.  I created him.  But ,” he paused to make sure I didn’t misunderstand...”I did it only because I was naive.   Even Creators make mistakes.  I learned that from George Burns.  I liked him a lot in that  Oh God movie when George did his thing about screwing up when he created the avocado--making the pit too big.  I laughed so hard I created a hurricane.”

“So, Free Will and the Devil are here to stay?”

“I guess so. I’ve tried many times to change it back, believe ME.  You can only take so much crap from people...God did this...It’s God’s fault...Why did God forsake ME?....    I feel like that little Flying Nun girl that finally got an academy award and said:  ‘You like me...you really like ME...’   What’s her name...I forget...?”

“Sally Fields...”

“Yeah...that’s her...cute little girl...how’s she doing?”

“I don’t know, Sir.  You’re supposed to know.  You’re Omnipotent.”  I tensed.  There was a ring of irritation in my Voice, perhaps from getting too familiar with God.   I braced and cowered just a tiny bit.

“It’s Buddy, Cliff.  Let’s keep this personal, Okay?  Nice and personal.  Okay.  Okay.  About this Omnipotence stuff, let’s get the record straight.  I’m a Creator, not a manager.   People think I should manage all their acts and all their reactions to them.   They hold ME personally responsible for everything--well, maybe not everyone...but most do.  They forget I gave them the tools to manage themselves, not a license to blame Me for life’s pains and problems.   You don’t have ants calling me up when the anteater comes by for lunch, or the mother gnat screaming at me when the frog’s tongue whips out and takes away one of their children, or the gorillas creating a new religion where they can pray to someone who they think will listen to their particular prayers better than I.

“I created humans with Free Will and the Right to Manage that Will.   I Created a very simple formula anyone can use to manage Good over Bad, Right over Wrong.  I gave them The One Percent Factor, Cliff.

“What’s that?”   I was relaxing, inching toward the edge of my chair.  This was the inside scoop.  An interview with God.  Nobody had ever had one I knew of...I was the first.

 “All choice is about One Percent, Cliff.  To make a choice you simply have to believe One Percent more in doing something than not doing it.   Say, it’s believing in God.   If you Doubt in Me by Forty-Nine Percent, but believe in Me by Fifty-One Percent, then you are a Believer.   You don’t have to have a hundred percent belief...no one does.   No one can.   Humans are composed of the yin and yang, as the Easter philoSarahs advocate.   Westerners call it Right and Wrong, a Plus or Minus.   So, I have you all One Percent more Good than Bad--One Percent more Hope than Dismay--One Percent more Faith than Fear.  The idea was you’d recognize how easy it is to manage yourselves.  But you’re a long way from that realization, Cliff, that you can change your lives by thinking and acting in Plus One Percent ways.   A little more Good than Bad, a little more Hope than Dismay, a little more Faith than Fear.   Pretty simple, wouldn’t you say, Cliff...?   Maybe too simple?”

“I kind of understand it, Buddy.   But what keeps the Good from being overpowered by the Bad, the Right from the Wrong?   Like the Terrorists.  They weren’t using the Plus One Percent Factor...they were using the Minus One Percent Factor.”

“That’s right, Cliff.  See, I knew I liked you for some reason.  I like people who agree with me.”  He leaned forward and touched his fingertips to mine.

“The guiding control--the measuring stick I gave you with Free Will, Cliff, was a conscience.   I gave you the ability to distinguish between Right and Wrong.  You’ve got to understand, Cliff, if I were to manage every human being, you wouldn’t grow.  You’d be ants or bugs or birds or frogs or leaves...following your instincts to perfection.  If I could manage humankind, I hit the default button and return everyone to Paradise and eliminate Lucifer--then, I could get some sleep and stop worrying about your guys..”

“Worrying?”

“Look at you, Cliff.  Here you are in what you call the Twenty-First Century, locked in the midst of a Holy War with Islamic extremist Terrorists.   Not too many centuries ago--your time of course, not mine--the Christians waged a Holy War on what they called the ‘heathen’ world, claiming dominion over all. Let’s not even talk about Ireland and Protestants and Catholics.  Now, I’m not picking on Christianity or Islam, I’m just using them as examples.  I could cite many.  I am not prejudiced.  Okay, Cliff?”

“Yes...” I checked the ‘Sir’ at the door of my lips and added, “Yes, Buddy.”

“Now, you add to the organized religions these cults that allege to get their power from divine sources.   They like to promote to others they are inspired by ME--that they can kill in God’s name with impunity because I sanctioned it.  Look at those idiots in Japan putting poisons in the subway and claiming some righteousness to kill innocent people.  It’s all Lucifer...all Minus One Percent Thinking, Cliff...  It’s so absurd.  So irreverent.  But it has been created by religious confusion.  By people claiming exclusive righteousness over ME--forcing others to accept their way or be excluded from ME.  That’s very insulting.  It angers ME greatly.”

I felt the Heavens begin to shake as God’s forehead crunched and his thick, silver-gray eyebrows mashed together.

“Easy, Buddy.  I’m fragile.  Easy.”

“Yes...Yes..restraint...so hard these days.   I was so angry when the religions started up.  One after another, fighting to claim their supremacy over others, as though the road to Heaven was paved by the words of their home-spun prophets.”

“Are you suggesting that Jesus isn’t your son?  That Buddha isn’t divine.  That Mohammed isn’t authentic?”

“I’m not going down that road, Cliff.  Simplistically put, the symbols of religion are simply godheads...they are road signs that point to ME.  But that’s not how they are interpreted.   The extremists claim their godhead is God, not a directional sign.  They stop one level short of ME.  And that gripes my ass!”

I cracked a timorous smile.  God was pretty down-to-earth.  I liked that.  Maybe, just maybe,  he was a real Buddy after all.   But then there was his stentoric Voice.  I was sure at any moment lightening would lash from the tip of his tongue, and he’d point his finger at me and all Hell would break loose from its tip.  I kept a respectful distance between accepting him on equal grounds.  After all, he was God. 

“So, God, what is your take on the current events.  The Terrorists, specifically?”

“I’m so angry.   It’s that damn Lucifer at work again.  He’s stirring up the pot.   He’s flipped that One Percent Good to Bad in those Terrorists.   He made them think they were righteous in killing innocent people, in striking fear in the hearts of children.   God, I hate that when the children suffer.  But I’m locked out.”

“I don’t mean this irreverently, Buddy, and I hope you take it only as a question and not an indictment, but if you are God, All Powerful, the Creator, then what good are you in these troubled times...if you can’t change anything?  If you can’t make Good triumph over Evil, if you can’t perform miracles?”

God sat up straight, his jaw crunched.  The Angels fluttered nervously.

“Who said anything about not performing miracles!”  God stood up and took a step toward me.  I shoved myself back in the chair as far as I could for protection.

“I’m sorry, Sir, I didn’t mean to be offensive.”

“I may have locked out my ability to change things, but I never gave up my right to perform miracles.  That’s why I’m God.  Is that clear?”

“Yes, Sir!”   The sweat rolled off my forehead.  I felt my heart quicken.  My breath came in short gasps.

God sat back down and crossed his legs and smiled.   I let out a gush of air I had been holding.

“My lack of interference in human strife is not a sign of my neglect or impotence, Cliff.   I don’t need five-hundred milligrams of Viagra to do my job.  What I did to protect humankind from itself was  to install the One Percent Factor along with your Free Will.  Right now, humankind is reaching for that Plus One Percent.   You call it Faith, I call it Justice.  

“Humankind’s existence, its ability to learn to live in harmony with each other, the safety of the children and their children’s children will depend on using that One Percent of Faith as never before.  People will have to stop blaming ME and taking more action on their own.  Religions will have to stop shutting the door to belief in ME except through them, and embrace the idea of religion as a path to God, not a toll bridge they own.  Those who maintain an exclusive grip on the right to be the True Religion will be commit Spiritual Terrorist...and, that’s heresy in my Book.” 

God slammed down his hand on a huge leather book resting next to his chair.  Thundered rolled through the Heavens as he did.

 “I have it all recorded here, Cliff.   All the strife, all the pain, all the falsity and travesty of trying to circumvent a direct connection between a human being and One God.   It’s the most painful part of MY life these days--to hear MY name used as the cause of people’s death--or that a human being in need of me is told he or she must subscribe to certain belief systems, adhere to specific rules and dogma, just to get my ear.  That’s bullcrap!”  God pounded the book again.  Dust flew everywhere.

“Then you are saying that the Terrorists were wrong in claiming they acted in your name--even if they believed under their religion they were acting in concert with their beliefs?”

“Of course.  The Terrorists were just criminals--but their crime was against ME.  They were  Terrorists of the Soul.  They twisted the One Percent Good to justify their acts.  They didn’t think about the children of those they killed.  They didn’t think about striking fear into the hearts of families all over the world.  They simply wanted to Terrorize ME.  They want to destroy the Faith people have in ME to protect them.  If one’s Faith in God’s Goodness can be destroyed, even fractured, or whittled down, then Terrorism wins.  Remember, Cliff, Faith and Fear are separated by a meager One Percent.  How much Terror does it take to destroy a Percent Of Faith?   How much?”

His question drove at me like a fist.  I hadn’t thought about it in such mathematical terms, but I could see what He was driving at.

“Not much?”  I didn’t know the answer for sure.  I grasped at straws with the “not much.”

“Exactly, Cliff.   The little child who is afraid of the bogeyman at night, who wakes up crying in Terror, needs only a switch of a light to bring Faith to Fear.   And it works the other way.  You can be walking down the street, happy, joyous, free--full of Faith--then something happens...it could be anything...a call on the phone...a letter...someone threatening you...and that fragile One Percent of Faith crumbles...and you’re in a pit of Fear.

“What’s the solution?”

“Vigilance.   You fight Fear with Faith.  You keep looking for the Plus One Percent.  You ask ‘where’s the good in all this bad?’  It isn’t easy to believe when you’re older...but it is when you’re a child.  That’s why we need to focus on protecting children from Fear, Cliff.  That’s why Vigilance of the Plus One Percent is critical to building a nation of people who are One Percent more Faithful than Fearful.   That will drive Lucifer and his henchmen back to the bowels of Hell where they belong.”

“So what is the plan of action?  What should everyone do?

“If people focus on doing the right thing instead of avoiding the wrong thing, they never ‘sin,’ as you humans like to say.  That word, sin, means “missing the mark.”  It’s Okay to make mistakes if you’re trying.  There is no perfection.  Look at the avocado?”

God laughed.  I relaxed.

 “People don’t need some threat to keep them on track.   Religion has historically carried a great club--like your Teddy Roosevelt--’walk softly and carry a big stick.’  If we get away from this Hellfire and Damnation principle we can focus on the Golden Rule, rather than Lucifer’s which is “Don’t Do Unto Others That Which Will Put You In Hell!’   The more we worry about mistakes, the more we make them.   It’s like sports.  If we’re worrying about “being right and being spiritual,”  we are being defensive...let’s call it Defensive Spiritualism.  But, if we focus on doing what is right, on improving a little at a time over our flaws and defects, and we think about how we can help the children have vigilance over their Fears, then we are using Spiritual Offensive thinking.  We are playing in the Plus One Percent arena, not the negative one.   Those Terrorists had no respect for the Children, Cliff, or they wouldn’t have taken away their parents in MY name or anyone’s name.

“So, are you going to perform a miracle and resolve this problem?”

“I am.”

“May I ask what it will be?”

“No.”

“I thought I was your Buddy?”

“No.  I’m your Buddy.”

I smiled.  I understood.  Or, I thought I did.  Maybe God saw the ounce of Doubt in me...that drop of skepticism I was trying to hide.

“In case you’re not totally convinced about the future’s outlook, Cliff, let me have you look back through history.   Your history.  The history of human beings with Free Will, who can choose to go forward or backward. 

“When you look back over the history of human kind, doesn’t Good always overcome Evil in the long run?  Don’t the Hitler’s ultimately come to justice?   Aren’t the tyrants deposed?   Hasn’t humankind progressed from a primal state to one of Great Hope?   Look at the average life span of a human being, Cliff?  Just that alone should tell you something?   Look at where you are today in relation to where the world was not very long ago?   In Western Europe there hasn’t been a war raging for nearly fifty of your years.   Yet before, strife and conflict existed almost daily.   The same is true throughout the world. 

“Less and less inhumanity is being delivered upon the innocent than ever before in your history.   If you had television and news cameras two hundred years ago recording all the horror in the world, there wouldn’t be enough paper or airtime to print and broadcast it all.   Only recently have your television cameras been able to show the world the agony of starvation, the pain of war and famine.  

“What has it been?  Less than fifty years?  Out of millions?   But, Cliff, while you have grown in the ability to be more and more compassionate, the cockroaches remain stable.  Nothing has changed for the creatures without Fee Will.  The monkeys are still monkeys, not unlike they were a few hundred years ago--neither more or less compassionate.   And the birds--the same.  They are locked out of Faith.  You’re not.   The power of humankind is to have the Faith to change, the Faith to stop violence, the Faith to thwart it, the Faith to learn unity as one.   And, you’re getting there, Cliff.   If only you could see how far and fast you’ve come, you would kick Lucifer’s butt out of the galaxy.  But it will take a shock to the Belief Systems to bring that about.  The Terrorists have done that.   In the horror of their attack, they put all old conventions to question.   Faith in the future of America and the world is the only weapon that will destroy Terrorism--for Terrorism is the product of Fear--of the Minus One Percent that Lucifer tries to control.

“When you’re in doubt about the Faith of Good over Evil, spin back through history.  See the miracle before your eyes.  Evil never wins--never...never...never...in the long run. It will only win in the short-run if you stop being vigilant...if your circumvent your Faith in the future.   Terrorism wants you to worry more about dying than living, Cliff.  I assure you of that.  Terrorism wants you to worry about not going to Hell so you can forget about Heaven...and use your energies Defensively instead of Offensively.

“But humankind has come so far, Cliff.  You’d be so proud if you could see what I see, as far back as I can see, and as far into the future as I can see.   Your business is to keep the Faith, baby!”

God laughed, as though he knew he was getting too serious, too pedantic.   I relaxed.   I saw what he meant.  I remembered what it was like at Ground Zero on September 11 when the buildings exploded.  I remember all the people helping one another, of all races, creeds, colors, economic stations.  I remember the feeling of death and life, and how we all became one in that moment.   Maybe that’s what God was getting at.  At that moment, there was no separation.  We were all One With God.   I jerked as God started to speak.

“The Terrorism you experienced on September 11, Cliff, was a symbol of the need to find One God among the many.   It doesn’t mean people have to give up their religions.  Religions are good in many ways.  But  religion itself must stop trying to be the “true religion” and condemn anyone who doesn’t embrace it as unworthy of Heaven.  That would make the access to ME, God, limited.  I am Omnipotent.  Anyone can reach ME anytime by calling on ME.  I am there, always, forever.    Religions must become less ferocious about demanding the acceptance of their rules as a passport to my front door. That doesn’t work.  It never has.   And I will punish those who try and put a lid on my address unless it goes through their post office box.    Just look at Jimmy Swaggart?”

God laughed uproariously.   “Man, when he came on the tube with those phony tears of his streaming down his face, I rolled over all of Heaven’s belly laughing.   Old Swaggart was a drop in the bucket of the Hell and Damnation crew.   Guys like bin Laden are teaching humankind a far more dangerous religious extremism.   Killing in MY name!  No.  It won't work.  It will backfire.  It will force Muslims to reevaluate their religion’s extremes, and ask if it is right to think that their God supersedes all Gods people believe in...and whether death of the innocent is in any form justified. 

"Bin Laden is a Spiritual Terrorist.  And his own people will be the first to root him out.    Muslims will take another look at ancient beliefs.   Just as the Catholics have.  And the Protestants.    Religion is a particular study of faith in God, but is not God.  I am God.  Religion cannot claim ME for itself.   That falsity is falling by the wayside, but it takes time.   And, those trying to violate MY laws will be punished.  I assure you."  

God thumped his forefinger on the black book. 

He smiled at me.  And then nodded his head, almost as though he might be tired and needed a nap.  
           

“Did you have any other questions, Cliff?”

“No,” I lied.  I had millions.  But I had to go.  I had to think about what I had heard.  I had to ask myself a lot of questions.

“Will you come back and visit again, Cliff.  I liked talking at you.”

“Yes, Sir.  I will.”

“Buddy, Cliff.  Just let me be your Buddy.”

“Okay, Sir...err...Buddy...see you around...”

“I’m always there for you, Cliff.  Keep it simple.   One God, not many.  No restrictions.

 “Okay....” I paused.... “Buddy!”
                                                                                       --end--