The Power of Belief (part 2)

...continued from The Power of Belief (part 1)

When I read, "Yesterday I knew that god didn't like me - or at least enjoyed messing with me," on Square Peg Reflections I knew I would be tempted to comment with the equivalent of two long blog posts. But I restrained myself and saved them for you!

It's not a good idea to think that G?d enjoys messing with you. It might start happening more often.

It took me a long while to realize this. I grew up with a pessimistic mother. She'd be puttering about in the kitchen listening to us laugh at a great TV show. So she'd come to sit down with us, and a commercial would come on. And then she'd say, "Of course. As soon as I sit down, a commercial comes on." Then she get up and go back to the kitchen to putter about some more.

But I didn't start believing in a malevolent G?d, or a prank-filled Universe, until I was an adult. I'm sure I was greatly influenced by Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

When did I think the Universe was out to get me and not just Arthur Dent?

Perhaps it was right after I decided to take that out-of-state job offer, and was moving to my new apartment. I let the movers take all the furniture and boxes of durable items. I packed the delicate computer and stereo equipment in my car, and, a couple of hours later, crashed into another car on the highway whose driver had stopped because he missed his exit.

Or perhaps it was a few years later when my wife and I got married and we bought the House. This is the House whose oil burner broke before dawn on Christmas morning, the day after our daughter was born.

It wasn't long after that that I started to dread making plans. "Hi Bro. Sorry I can't come to your Christmas get-together. Our daughter is throwing up." I wish Sherre Hirsch had written her book "We Plan, God Laughs" several years earlier. I really needed it then.

Up until recently, even driving to work had been disturbing. How many consecutive traffic lights need to turn red just as you get to them before you wonder what's going on?

It was The Secret that made me realize what was going on. It made it clear that I had to stop expecting failure. I needed to reject this image of G?d snatching the cheese out of my maze just as I reach the end. I had to start thinking that I was loved and cared for by the Universe.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really am loved by the Universe. I have gotten through difficult situations without too much grief. I'm healthy and not in pain. I have even had random choices turn out surprisingly well.

Good things are in store for you. Believe it!