A FUNNY STORY ABOUT GOD

“I will tell you a very funny story about God. When I was a kid I used to think that God was the ceiling. When I asked my mom, ‘Where is God?’ she told me ‘He’s up there.’ When I looked up there all I found was the ceiling. So for a very long time, I used to think that God was the ceiling. When I got older, I used to think that everyone had a ceiling in their home, so there were many Gods. Then I got to the point of realizing that there’s one God and He is up there but He’s not the ceiling.

Today, I think I have faith in myself. Anybody, or myself, as an individual, can change the world and make it a better place.”

Daniel’s Reflection

I met Angie El Batraway in Cairo, Egypt where she is a journalist and graphic designer. Today she is the managing editor of an online magazine, Cairo 360. When we met, she was the editor of a magazine published by the El-Sawy Cultural Wheel, a very progressive and impressive culture and arts organization located under a bridge right on the River Nile. Angie has a big smile and I can tell from our time together that she sees the possibilities and the humor in all of life.

I love her story about thinking the ceiling was God. Almost all of us learn our concept of God (including not having a concept of God) from our parents. And many people never learn another concept of God— they still think God is the ceiling or whatever they think they were taught. It reminds me of the quote from the late great Muhammad Ali who said: “A man who views the world the same at fifty as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” I believe the same applies to our concept of God.

Thank God I no longer see God the way I did as a child. Now my greatest understanding of God is that He/She/It is beyond understanding, is one with all that is, and is in you and me. And I love also that Angie says that today her faith is in herself, that each of us can change the world, and that this is faith. I couldn’t agree more.