God, the Whipping Boy

Everywhere I turn these days, someone I know is blaming their bad decisions or bad experiences on God. God led them to quit their job. Now they are complaining because they have no money. God led them to quit their job and move away from their home to a new town. Now they complain because they do not know anyone and maybe it was not a good move. But they are all praying real hard the God will help them make another decision.

I have news for them. When you make a decision to quit your job in the middle of a bad economic downturn, do not blame God. Blame yourself. Man up and take responsibility for your bad decision. When you are greedy, over extend yourself thinking you are going to be rich, and then you lose everything, do not pray that God will deliver you. You made the bad decision. You spent the money.

It has all become very tiring to me. I about throw up every time I read another post on Facebook about God. No one I know seems to be able to make a move or write a sentence without a reference to God, and I am not exaggerating. It is an epidemic. It is amazing how I went though life for over 50 years, and I knew few people who were like this. As a child, adults did not constantly harp about God and how He ran every single aspect of their lives. They could make a move without bragging about how they prayed about it before hand. They did not make reference to God in every other sentence.

We have a new neighbor, who labels himself as a missionary. God, so he says, controls his every move. He, apparently, prays constantly and whips out his Bible at the drop of a hat to find an answer. He and his wife have moved to our town, apparently on a whim or as he says, God led them. His wife has a job a couple of hundred miles away in their old home town, but the job ends soon. They do not know what they will do. But God is leading them. He intends, it appears, to open up his own church and cater to 20 somethings. He is age 60. Another neighbor says she might want to run a background check on the guy.

A friend's husband was critically injured in an automobile accident last week. If he survives, he will face months of therapy and hospitalization. If I hear one person say it was God's will, I think I will surely go berserk. So...God made the motorcyclist brake unexpectedly, cause the following too closely motorist to swerve into the path of the husband, sending him on a helicopter flight to a level one trauma center in Atlanta. God is making him suffer and making his family suffer...to do what? Teach them a lesson? They are good folks. What kind of lesson is that? I know that I am going to hear all kinds of excuses, but few saying that it was simply an accident that might have been prevented had a few circumstances been different. Maybe someone had been less careless.

One comment on a previous post made reference to how the U.S. has become a Godless country. A new church has cropped up in the last few weeks in my area. That is just the one that I have seen advertised. There are probably a few others. We have numerous storefront churches in addition to the countless stand-a-lones. Everyone is a Christian. At least that is what they tell me. I used to be very wary of those who wore their religion on their sleeve. Now it seems almost everyone I know does it. Should I be suspicious? Probably. They are hiding something. That's why I'm suspicious of the new neighbor. A friend from his past recommended him to us, but she hasn't known him in thirty years. Who knows why he left his job in another town. He may be a criminal hiding behind God. After all, politicians and preachers do it all the time. I think a large segment of the "lay" population is hiding behind Him as well. They don't want to be responsible for their own lives and their decisions, so they always blame everything on God. What a whipping boy He has become!