Angels all around...
I had supper with a whole group of angels the other night. They all happened to be women, but in my experience angels are just as likely to be male as female.
Have you ever met an angel? I bet you have, but you might not have realized it.
Let me put some context around my statements. I am nominally a Roman Catholic, but I was raised to think critically rather than to rely on faith. That said, I still have a belief structure that aligns pretty well with the catechism of the church. I also admire and try to model the beliefs of other religions like Buddhism or Islam for example. "A good idea is independent of its source," according to a very capable doctor I worked with decades ago; I try to live my life according to any principle or teaching that makes sense or brings me peace. So, with that in mind I want to share a joke/parable because it helps to explain how I wound up at the same table as a group of angels. So here it goes...
A very devout, deeply religious man started praying to God because it was raining heavily. "Dear Lord; I am a faithful man. Please save me from the rain waters that are rising toward my house..."
His prayers were interrupted praying by a knock at his door. A man in rubber boots was standing on his step, gesturing to his 4X4 idling in the driveway with flood waters lapping at its tires.
"Buddy! Come on - I can take you to safety!" the bearded 4X4 driver says.
"Thanks, but no," the religious man told him. "I have prayed to God. He will save me."
The bearded guy wants to argue but shrugs and gets in his truck to go to the next house.
The rain continues. Not surprisingly, the flood waters rise higher. The religious man is forced to retreat to the upper floor of his house where he prays with even more energy. He is deep in prayer when another man opens the window to the room he is in and gestures to his boat.
"Sir - you have to get in the boat," he says. "The rain is supposed to continue for days. You're going to drown!"
"No need," the religious man says, shaking his head and crossing his arms defiantly. "I've always been an upstanding religious man and I am praying to God. I have faith that He will save me."
The man in the boat briefly contemplates going in through the window and dragging the man out anyway but hears a voice calling from a nearby house. He leaves the man to his prayer and goes to save the man's neighbours instead.
The rains persist despite the religious man's unwavering faith and prayer. He climbs up through the attic and makes his way up to the roof, certain that God will reach down and save him if he keeps his faith strong. He is in the midst of some particularly fervent prayer when he is jostled by the downdraft from a helicopter.
"Get in!" the young soldier inside the chopper shouts as he leans out and offers the man his hand. "The flood waters are rising. There's no time - we have to save you!"
"God will save me!" the religious man shouts back. "I have faith!"
The young soldier wants to grab the man anyway but the pilot gets a call on the radio that there are more people on the roof of a nearby store who also needed to be saved. The helicopter rises away from the praying man's house just as the waters surge mightily. He is swept from his roof and drowns.
The man awakes in Heaven, sitting dry and safe and warm across a low table from God. "Welcome to Heaven," God says to him.
"Welcome? Is that all you have to say?" the man shouts angrily. "I don't understand! I've always been faithful! I've never uttered a curse, never said a mean thing to anyone, and nobody prayed more than I did. Right up to the moment I died, I was praying for You to save me. Why didn't You listen?"
God smiles and caresses the man's cheek tenderly. "I listened. I listened to every word you said. And I sent you a man in a 4X4. But you didn't go with him, so I sent a man in a boat. You didn't go with him either so I had to send men in a helicopter but you still wouldn't go with them. What more did you expect Me to do?"
"Oh," the religious man said weakly.
Yeah. Sometimes I think we all feel like that.
I've never been able to have faith in a puppet-master God. There is no internal logic to a divine being that would grant us insight and free will, then take away that free will and do something magical or supernormal if we say the right magical words. More to the point, why would any divine being who could resolve a person's problems or even more to the point the world's problems not solve these problems? And if this being is a loving God, how could They allow their children to suffer from disease or famine or pestilence? All of these are among the arguments that some atheists or agnostics put forth to explain why they don't believe in God. I see an alternative to the no God/puppet-master God dichotomy.
I don't need a silvery hand to reach down from the clouds to pluck me from a rooftop. I would have got in the 4X4 in the first place.
So that's how I wound up around a table full of angels. There are angels all around me, conducting miraculous feats of love and caring in a simple glance or a meaningful hug or a special look in a hallway conversation or in having the courage to reach out and send an email to tell me that they care and surprisingly share in some of the same crap that I am going through. A lot of them swear and some of them smoke and some of them live lives that are decidedly not the stuff that people think of when they imagine angels... but they are still angels to me. They perform countless small miracles each and every day.
My angels fill me with hope. My angels remind me that my life is bigger and better than just a life with cancer. My angels make my soul soar when it feels so heavy that it is dragging me into the depths of depression and make me laugh when I need it most by saying things that ought to be considered at least wildly inappropriate. My angels surround me with love and kindness and caring.
My angels will save me, quite literally.
Aside from the army of angels pouring out their love for me, there is another army of angels who will take the cancer from my body and dissect it and study it. In the process, not only will I be cancer free, but they might find something that will help treat someone else with cancer. I will know the faces of some of these angels - like my surgeon and my gastroenterologist and my post-operative nurses - and some of them will care for me in my sleep. There will be scrub nurses and OR techs and a whole hierarchy of support staff making sure that my surgeon can remove my cancer and make me whole again. There will be people I talk to once after my surgery who will give me that one piece of information that will make my life better, even if just for a moment. Angels will visit me and lift my spirits as I recover in my hospital bed, and others will send prayers or wishes or positive energy my way. And of course there will be the most powerful angels - my wife and my children and my sisters and my mother - whose almost divine love will have the greatest healing effect on me.
Yes, these angels and so many more will save me. And all they ask of me is that I let them.
You are surrounded by angels, even if you don't know it. Looking at news headlines might make you think that there is little more than evil in this world, and while that evil undeniably exists, I think that there is far more good than evil. I suppose that could be a byproduct of my generally optimistic nature, but I prefer to think that there are far more angels in our world than demons.
Look around you. There are angels everywhere, and all they want to do is help you. Let them; don't be the guy who gets angry at God because he couldn't see the signs to literally save his life.
Oh - and to all my angels: I love you more than words can say. Keep being you - that's what I need.
Have you ever met an angel? I bet you have, but you might not have realized it.
Let me put some context around my statements. I am nominally a Roman Catholic, but I was raised to think critically rather than to rely on faith. That said, I still have a belief structure that aligns pretty well with the catechism of the church. I also admire and try to model the beliefs of other religions like Buddhism or Islam for example. "A good idea is independent of its source," according to a very capable doctor I worked with decades ago; I try to live my life according to any principle or teaching that makes sense or brings me peace. So, with that in mind I want to share a joke/parable because it helps to explain how I wound up at the same table as a group of angels. So here it goes...
A very devout, deeply religious man started praying to God because it was raining heavily. "Dear Lord; I am a faithful man. Please save me from the rain waters that are rising toward my house..."
His prayers were interrupted praying by a knock at his door. A man in rubber boots was standing on his step, gesturing to his 4X4 idling in the driveway with flood waters lapping at its tires.
"Buddy! Come on - I can take you to safety!" the bearded 4X4 driver says.
"Thanks, but no," the religious man told him. "I have prayed to God. He will save me."
The bearded guy wants to argue but shrugs and gets in his truck to go to the next house.
The rain continues. Not surprisingly, the flood waters rise higher. The religious man is forced to retreat to the upper floor of his house where he prays with even more energy. He is deep in prayer when another man opens the window to the room he is in and gestures to his boat.
"Sir - you have to get in the boat," he says. "The rain is supposed to continue for days. You're going to drown!"
"No need," the religious man says, shaking his head and crossing his arms defiantly. "I've always been an upstanding religious man and I am praying to God. I have faith that He will save me."
The man in the boat briefly contemplates going in through the window and dragging the man out anyway but hears a voice calling from a nearby house. He leaves the man to his prayer and goes to save the man's neighbours instead.
The rains persist despite the religious man's unwavering faith and prayer. He climbs up through the attic and makes his way up to the roof, certain that God will reach down and save him if he keeps his faith strong. He is in the midst of some particularly fervent prayer when he is jostled by the downdraft from a helicopter.
"Get in!" the young soldier inside the chopper shouts as he leans out and offers the man his hand. "The flood waters are rising. There's no time - we have to save you!"
"God will save me!" the religious man shouts back. "I have faith!"
The young soldier wants to grab the man anyway but the pilot gets a call on the radio that there are more people on the roof of a nearby store who also needed to be saved. The helicopter rises away from the praying man's house just as the waters surge mightily. He is swept from his roof and drowns.
The man awakes in Heaven, sitting dry and safe and warm across a low table from God. "Welcome to Heaven," God says to him.
"Welcome? Is that all you have to say?" the man shouts angrily. "I don't understand! I've always been faithful! I've never uttered a curse, never said a mean thing to anyone, and nobody prayed more than I did. Right up to the moment I died, I was praying for You to save me. Why didn't You listen?"
God smiles and caresses the man's cheek tenderly. "I listened. I listened to every word you said. And I sent you a man in a 4X4. But you didn't go with him, so I sent a man in a boat. You didn't go with him either so I had to send men in a helicopter but you still wouldn't go with them. What more did you expect Me to do?"
"Oh," the religious man said weakly.
Yeah. Sometimes I think we all feel like that.
I've never been able to have faith in a puppet-master God. There is no internal logic to a divine being that would grant us insight and free will, then take away that free will and do something magical or supernormal if we say the right magical words. More to the point, why would any divine being who could resolve a person's problems or even more to the point the world's problems not solve these problems? And if this being is a loving God, how could They allow their children to suffer from disease or famine or pestilence? All of these are among the arguments that some atheists or agnostics put forth to explain why they don't believe in God. I see an alternative to the no God/puppet-master God dichotomy.
I don't need a silvery hand to reach down from the clouds to pluck me from a rooftop. I would have got in the 4X4 in the first place.
So that's how I wound up around a table full of angels. There are angels all around me, conducting miraculous feats of love and caring in a simple glance or a meaningful hug or a special look in a hallway conversation or in having the courage to reach out and send an email to tell me that they care and surprisingly share in some of the same crap that I am going through. A lot of them swear and some of them smoke and some of them live lives that are decidedly not the stuff that people think of when they imagine angels... but they are still angels to me. They perform countless small miracles each and every day.
My angels fill me with hope. My angels remind me that my life is bigger and better than just a life with cancer. My angels make my soul soar when it feels so heavy that it is dragging me into the depths of depression and make me laugh when I need it most by saying things that ought to be considered at least wildly inappropriate. My angels surround me with love and kindness and caring.
My angels will save me, quite literally.
Aside from the army of angels pouring out their love for me, there is another army of angels who will take the cancer from my body and dissect it and study it. In the process, not only will I be cancer free, but they might find something that will help treat someone else with cancer. I will know the faces of some of these angels - like my surgeon and my gastroenterologist and my post-operative nurses - and some of them will care for me in my sleep. There will be scrub nurses and OR techs and a whole hierarchy of support staff making sure that my surgeon can remove my cancer and make me whole again. There will be people I talk to once after my surgery who will give me that one piece of information that will make my life better, even if just for a moment. Angels will visit me and lift my spirits as I recover in my hospital bed, and others will send prayers or wishes or positive energy my way. And of course there will be the most powerful angels - my wife and my children and my sisters and my mother - whose almost divine love will have the greatest healing effect on me.
Yes, these angels and so many more will save me. And all they ask of me is that I let them.
You are surrounded by angels, even if you don't know it. Looking at news headlines might make you think that there is little more than evil in this world, and while that evil undeniably exists, I think that there is far more good than evil. I suppose that could be a byproduct of my generally optimistic nature, but I prefer to think that there are far more angels in our world than demons.
Look around you. There are angels everywhere, and all they want to do is help you. Let them; don't be the guy who gets angry at God because he couldn't see the signs to literally save his life.
Oh - and to all my angels: I love you more than words can say. Keep being you - that's what I need.
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