I have a confession to make: sometimes I view my relationship to God like a drawn out and badly delivered joke. Where am I I in this equation? I am the punchline, of course.

This is very apropos, given my penchence for humor. If humor were be a calling or a spiritual gift, you can bet I'd be constantly on the prayer hotline asking for that one.  Humor can defuse potentially _____ situations.  It's also a great defense mechanism, one of many in my arsenal. However, it's a lot less funny when you are the butt of the joke. Specifically, an evil Genie joke.

It's a standard joke: someone comes across a magic lamp, and behold! It contains a genie waiting to grant them three wishes (except for wishing for more wishes. Apparently all the Genies caught on to that gig a long time ago). So, they make their wishes, and the genie grants his or her wish, exactly as worded, but taking advantage of w

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The human mind, while a wonderful and powerful mechanism, truly seems to fall short when striving to comprehend the complexities of the world, let alone attempting to comprehend the truly incomprehensible: God. Perhaps that is why the Israelites carved a golden calf to serve as their God while Moses was up conversing with said God up the mountain. God contains so much in one being that seems contradictory to us mere humans: wrathful judgment and mercy, anger and grace, violence and gentleness; a still, quiet voice, and a voice like thunder.

It is no wonder that in our twisted minds and skewed mental schemas, we have created God in an image of our choosing, much like a golden calf. Some, especially those who had absent or abusive fathers, think of God as an angry and stern father or as a punitive taskmaster. Others view God as an aloof spiritual being, who never intervenes on earth, while some think of God as a cruel puppet master, causing and controlling the fates of every suffering soul.  A recent development seems to be the view of God as some sort of cosmic ATM machine, waiting to indulge our every whim or fancy, like a shiny, new SUV or a 3000 square foot house.

I am not immune to this phenomenon. Recently it occurred to me that I occasionally caricature God as an Evil Genie-- just waiting to give me everything I ask for, but in some weird twisted way to punish or fool me. I

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