The only thing that would get me higher Search Engine Optimization on that head line is if I could somehow add the words “illegal immigration.” Alas, not this morning.

Today’s post is brought to you by the Letter P, for “perspective.” According to some interesting reading I’ve been doing of late, perspective has a lot to do with how people look at God (and sex, but that’s further down in the post). That perspective – or perhaps, a lack of it – is what makes some people really, really, REALLY angry at religion and/or people of faith. These people, sometimes called the “new atheists” by atheists of a more polite vein, confuse belief with religion and hop, skip and jump from a little old lady praying the rosary to lunatics killing each other in the name of a god they’ve made to fit their own political, ideological or tribal leanings. Like those in a fundamentalist religion who are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN they know what God thinks, these atheists are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN they know what all believers think. That certainty is what gets humans in trouble, in my experience.

For instance, if I say I believe in God, I am speaking from my own perspective and my own experience of the sacred, which may very well be different from yours. The God I imagine when I say that word may not be the God you imagine when you say that word. A million arguments could be avoided if we just asked each other to define our terms. As a really smart scientist I know has said, “When someone tells me he doesn’t believe in God, I ask him, ‘Tell me about the God you don’t believe in.’ Often, after hearing the description, I say, ‘Well I wouldn’t believe in that God either!’ ” It is all about perspective and experience. (continue reading…)

My backyard corn plant - in the shadows I know, I know.

I’m not trying to commit blasphemy here, but this amazing thing growing in my small backyard garden has had me saying, lately, in good-humor and with a little bit of awe and a heck of a lot of excitement: “I’m like God!”

In case you’re not sure what this picture is of, it is my corn plant (surrounded by other less impressive plants like zinnias and basil and pole beans). And the second picture, up close, is – yes, you guessed it – the beginnings of an ear of corn.

Everyday this plant grows a little taller and the ear grows fatter and it is just amazing to watch. Eat local? You betcha. With thanks given to monsoon rains and Arizona sun and my home-grown compost and some organic corn seed and blessings from above.

One of the things that religious people do, IMHO, is take themselves too seriously. Not all religious folk, mind you, but definitely the extremist kinds. I recognize that to them – be they Fundamentalist Christian, Orthodox Jew or the Saudi Arabian form of Muslim – religion is literally life and death. But to me, a God who could crank up the evolutionary cauldron that resulted in aardvarks and giraffes has to have a sense of humor. It isn’t God who has caused all the problems in, say, the Middle East, it is people’s interpretations of God. And these are folks who seriously need to lighten up.

Ergo, I offer you the GodLovesMEBest videos from the YouTube Channel, a series that bills itself as a “new television satire” examining the craziness of extremist religious views. I watched two of the videos and found them really funny, but then again, I also liked God, Inc. , which some of my friends found really offensive. (continue reading…)

I love this picture of my son and his girlfriend goofing around. I think it speaks volumes on so many levels – about their attitudes toward life (at least on that day) about their affection for each other (and comfort with each other) about their ability to mug for a photographer (and not be self-conscious).

Isn’t it great that we can make faces with our faces? Think about cats – they’re really limited in that area. Canaries? Ditto. Snakes? Not a chance. Porcupines? Porpoises? Opossums?

I don’t know, but to me, this picture is just one more Proof of God.

A few months ago, I told a priest I wished God would send a Post-it note with a message that: 1) proved God’s existence and 2) told me what I should do with my life.

The impending layoff, wondering what is going to happen to journalism, despair that maybe no one will notice when news is gone and democracy will collapse because of that absence (or just the local city council will get away with murder), a beautiful life marred by a few desperately painful mistakes — these things have collided to feed a crisis in faith that has been nibbling along the edges of my life for a few years, and darkness loomed. I wanted – no, needed – proof and I wanted it in a yellow sticky. It seemed such a small request. How hard could it be for the Creator of All to drop me a line?

The priest laughed and said, “But, Renee, if you got a Post-it, you would instantly question if it was REALLY from God.”

He knows me well: I’m plagued by a questioning nature. I envy those of easy belief, those whose simple faith is truly childlike. They trust, God provides. They accept mystery as part and parcel of the whole deal and don’t drown in the questions. And they are something I am frequently not: Blissfully happy. Even in the midst of pain, these folks find joy.

Since my talk with my priest friend, I’ve been trying in earnest to sharpen my spiritual tuning fork. I’ve been trying to pay more attention and take more time. And, in the past few weeks, I’ve had what I used to call “God moments,” but like the priest said, I’ve tended to question them. “Naw, that wasn’t … no, that was …. well, it was a coincidence.”

Here I ask God for a sign and I get some pretty obvious ones (even in the midst of the layoff, with despair threatening) and instead of saying, “Hey, that’s my Post-it note,” I say, “It’s not yellow.” But tonight, looking back on the past few weeks, I realize: Dang, I’ve been asking for direction and I think I just felt the hand print of God on the small of my back pushing me that way. And suddenly, in that noticing, I feel two things I haven’t felt in a long while: peaceful and happy.

Will it last? Probably not. Life, and all its feelings, are fleeting. And faith untested really isn’t much faith at all. But I sure hope I can remember this moment when the demons of doubt try to tell me Post-its only come in yellow.