Laughing

"Laughing With" - Regina Spector

https://youtu.be/-pxRXP3w-sQ

I was watching television and this song came on. Here are some of the lyrics...

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one´s laughing at God when they´re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one´s laughing at God when it´s gotten real late
And their kid´s not back from the party yet
No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one´s laughing at God when they see the one they love
Hand in hand with someone else and they hope they´re mistaken

     These words are so true that they stink. Everyone has opinions and beliefs. People believe what they are comfortable believing. No one wants to believe in consequence or cause and effect. Nevertheless, the truth is the truth, even when it doesn't fit into our own belief systems. 

     I've encountered some bad things that didn't fit into my belief system too. I had to adjust the way I think. Truth is, I knew the truth before, but hadn't experienced it fully. I knew the world was really angry. I knew that there weren't many that were going to stand up for me or anyone else without some profit. But when I had to see even worse first hand, I had to try to figure out a life that learned to cope with true reality. Experiential reality is greater than knowledge of this reality. 

     Before I was a believer in a true and loving God, I was a believer in a true and angry and hateful God. I believed this because I went to a hateful and angry church and school. I was a kid trying to live, and they made me this monster. None of that matters now, but I think many have had the same experience with people that claimed to know and work for "God." So in the defense of the angry, I will tell you that I get it. I understand. I've been there until I saw God.

     I had always lived in this religious culture, where everything is subject to the religious commentary from it's "leaders." Rules come down from above and we are subject to them from self righteous pulpits and false visions of a better life. There isn't a better life. God doesn't make exceptions. People are born and people die. It can be funny, and it can make you mourn your entire life. 

     I don't think God really attends the memorials. I don't think God lives very closely to the neighborhoods that preach His name. I think God lives in the places that no one would ever find Him. I think God lives in the moments that the writer of the song above sang about. I think that God lives in the people that know they need him. In America, God is a joke. In reality, God is the hand that holds the head of a dead child in Iraq, who has just had his ams and legs blown off. God is the doctor that goes against his better judgement and makes difficult decisions to give peace to a patient that just wants it all to end. God truly is love. 

God is never a joke when you really need Him. 

     

Sing.
Migrate.



Thanks for reading...Z