Tag: God

What is God? 🤔

Let me start with a question. Have you sought a simple and satisfactory answer to a vexing question that has been on your mind? One of the questions I have been asking myself and pondering about is “What is God?” 🤔 Reason and urgency for an answer to that question is the fact that many of the current and past conflicts in the world have been in the name of God. Deciding to deconstruct God I wondered if the question should start with “What” or “Who” and settled on “What is God?”. Some might ask why. For some, God is like a person, for others a concept. I am going with concept as it appears more appropriate given that people have different ideas and visions when they think of God. The next question that arose was “Is religion a must for believing in God?”. After some reflection it appears that religion serves the purpose of a wrapper around the concept of God. Which led to the next question “Does God require a shrine?”. Human beings like to wrap and package what they consider is precious and I arrived at the reason that a place of worship serves as a package. Where there is religion, there is denomination too. Reason for that is human tendency to narrow down any group to only those who are aligned totally with a set of beliefs and values. Any group needs a leader too for direction. For some, the leader is a human being that embodies the qualities of God and for others it is God. In effect, God appears to be a construct (idea) that needs to be wrapped and housed in a construct (place of worship). Which brought an interesting thought. Even money could fit the definition of God for people who believe in absolute power of money! Typically, any currency has two sides with figures on either side. On one side the figure is a person (or a symbol) and on the other side the figure is a number. What does the number denote? Denomination! What is the significance of the number? Its value! The US currency even has “IN GOD WE TRUST” on one side of the currency! So, money has a figure of leadership (or symbolism), denomination and values attached to it. The similarity doesn’t end there. People in different parts of the world feel comfortable with their own versions of God and money! So, I ended up where I began with the question “What is God?” as I wanted to find an answer that fit my perception and general perception.

The conclusion I arrived at: God is each individual’s inner voice that commands their thoughts, words and actions. 🙏 The inner voice offers a rationale and can manifest itself in either good qualities (broad outlook, kindness, generosity, empathy etc) or unbelievably bad outcomes (harming and killing in the name of God). This definition of God fits everyone, whatever their beliefs (theist, agnostic or atheist), offers me a simple and satisfactory answer I was looking for. I am at peace with this conclusion. 🙏

Temporary High!

In one of my recent posts I had mentioned about my interest in coins getting rekindled when I got a Wheat Penny (pennies produces between 1909 and 1958 that feature two ears of wheat on one face of the coin). That led to me taking a look at the loose change that got accumulated over the years and some coins I had either bought or kept aside because they looked interesting, either because of their craftmanship or beauty or theme (historic events, people and places etc). One good certainly resulted from the effort to locate the coins at home: I took them to my bank local branch, used the coin sorter and deposited to my account. One big load off my shoulders (and wrists and elbows too)! The coins I had retained I sorted based on their denomination and stored in separate containers. Some old coins I cleaned so that my old eyes could see the details of the coins (like the year and the mint in which they were produced) to determine whether to keep them or get them into circulation by using them.

Did some basic research on coins by googling for more information. What I found about the value of some of the old coins (in ebay and other websites) was astounding! Made me think I am sitting on top of a goldmine containing deposits of metals like zinc, copper, nickel and silver 😊 I said to myself “What the heck am I doing working a daytime job when I could just rake in the moolah by just trading coins and make myself a decent pile! Retirement beckoned but I resisted the temptation to tell my employer that I was putting in my papers 😉 I heard a voice in the background telling me something, but I was too engrossed in living out my dream to pay attention to the voice. Few weeks later I took my stash to a local coin and jewelry shop to get their value appraised. Got to prepare for retirement too, right? 😂

I announced my arrival at the coin shop by saying I had some old coins that I wanted to find the worth of. I placed the containers on the table for the shop person to take a look. First, he unloaded the container with pennies to his palm, then the nickels, followed by dimes and quarters. Boom, boom, boom, within no time he had them all appraised and gave me his 3 cents on the value of my coin collection. First the good news! Of the pennies I had the three that were wheat pennies he valued them at double their face value. i.e. One cent value = Two cents each! Great start I said! 😊 The nickels, dimes and quarters he valued all of them at their face value. Seeing him on a roll I fished out some more coins from my jeans and said, “While you are at it, take a look at these coins too”. Same result! Just worth their face value 😂 Hmmm, not the news I was expecting to hear. Man, the value appreciation did not even cover the effort and the cost of vinegar+salt I had spent in cleaning some of the coins. As a final twist of the dagger, he added there were 8 billion quarters minted to mark the bicentennial year of Independence, so what appreciation could I expect? I had a few of those quarters too. Anyways, no worries. It was a temporary high, was good as long as it lasted! No harm, no foul! None of the coins had lost their value. 👍

As I sat in my car with my stash of coins in the passenger seat, I heard the same familiar voice I had heard earlier when I got started on my coin research voyage. It was God! 🙏
God: ‘Sup, son? (God is chill, likes to keep it light!)
Me: Hey, boss!
God: You were lost in thought. Anything bothering you?
I related to God how I had to scupper my plans for retirement after visiting the coin dealer.
God: Retirement? Ha, ha, ha! (God likes to have a hearty laugh)
Me: What’s so funny, boss?
God: For most people retirement is a pipedream. Just do what you like to do and don’t worry about the future.
Me: Yeah, you have a point. With so much social insecurity, can’t bank on Social Security either and it’s capped too. There are also doubts whether it will stay when I qualify for it.
God: Did you see the good in what happened today?
Me: Yes, I did! I can spend my coins without thinking I might be spending a fortune 😊 and the lightened load will be easy on my wrist and elbow too!
God: There you go, you see the good. You are a quick study, son!
Me: Of course, with you as the master what else did you expect? 😉
God: Good try, to butter me up 😂
Me: I try 😊. Hey boss, how is it up there? Any tension with the other Gods? There is so much anger, hatred and violence happening here in the name of God.
God: Oh son, absolutely no problems! Unfortunately, my creations are the source of some of my biggest disappointments. Sigh!
(I thought only humans have to learn with their disappointments. It was revealing even Gods have their disappointments)
Me: Good to hear all is good there
God: Listen, just came by to check on you. Got a lot of work to do. Come to think of it, mine is a 24×7 job forever with no breaks and no pay. I just do it and I have more on my plate, son.
Me: Yeah, your portfolio is much bigger than mine 🙏 I couldn’t do that job.
God: You got that right! Take care, son! (God then disappeared with a beatific smile on face)

There you go, some good always results. One just has to carry on and look forward. That reminds me, I got to go now. No, silly, retirement is not beckoning 😂, got to do my laundry for the work week ahead. Take care 🙏