An e-mail from God.
Imagine this…
You open your inbox and find an e-mail with the subject line:
An e-mail from God.
When you check who sent the e-mail, it simply reads, God.
What do you imagine the message would contain?
- Praise?
- Condemnation?
- An answer to a question that you’ve been asking?
- Advice?
- A forwarded joke?
As the head of Religion-Outside-The-Box, it is my job to remind you that it behooves each of us to have a healthy, open relationship with (the) God (of our understanding) because that relationship is the backbone of our spiritual-religious lives.
(I’m not saying that any of us ought to be clear in our understanding of God – after all, God is defined a lot of the time as the indefinable or incomprehensible.)
Nonetheless I want you to think about this:
What would be in an e-mail to you from God?
(Remember, as always, this is according to your understanding of what you want to use the word “God” to mean or not mean.)
Really take a moment to think about it.
What do you think God would want to communicate with you?
(I’m leaving a space here to indicate that were this printed out, you would write your answers. But, as this is e-mail, please give at least 30 seconds to thinking about your answer.)
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What about your response?
What would you write back?
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How would you sign your e-mail?
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Now, let me tell you what I imagine would be in the e-mail that I receive from God. (Remember, this is according to my understanding of the word God today… it’s neither to tell you what you ought to believe nor anything set in stone with regard to my theology.)
E-mail from God to me:
Brian, I love you, always have, always will. Just wanted to share that. Love, God.
E-mail response from me:
I don’t want to complain, but I wish I felt it more. I feel like I ought to. I mean, thanks for the e-mail and I am grateful for the abundance in my life, but I still don’t feel complete, fulfilled, free. I guess I want to ask you for more…which, I realize is a bit much to ask for seeing that I have so much already. I want more faith, more security, more peace. (Of course, there are many in serious pain who need your help more than I do and please do take care of them… but don’t forget about me.) I’m going to re-commit to making space in my life so that I can feel connected to you – and not just by our e-mail correspondence. Love, Brian
With love,
Rabbi Brian
(If you want to e-mail me your thoughts about this spiritual-religious exercise — while I’m not God — I would be glad for the correspondence.)
A web version of this article is available here.
This article was also posted at Street Prophets.
