Trading Places

Trading Places

            I traded places with God the other day.

“How did you do that?” you ask. Well, it’s not easy. In fact it took the better part fifty years and a few unforeseen circumstances to get so I could. This is how it came about and what happened.

            I was on a job search not long ago and it pretty much went like the previous six weeks. That’s right I said six, and it has been longer than that since I’ve last worked I ended the day without any prospects or new leads. The holidays were approaching and things were becoming desperate. I work retail and you’d think there would be plenty of openings as businesses were staffing up for the rush. That maybe so, but not so much in a repressed economy. Everywhere I went it seemed they had already hired as many as needed. ; Always a day late. The story of my life. At the end of the each day I was more depressed and desperate than the day before.

            Day after day this went on and I was reminded of a cliché – “The meaning of insanity is to continue to do the same thing and expect different results.” Well, it seems job hunting certainly fits that criterion. I thought that I had to come up with a new approach somehow. If I was going to get through this “insanity” I was at least going to need a different attitude. Then it dawned on me. Einstein was quoted as saying “I just want to see through God’s eyes.” Well, I just took it a step farther, what if I traded places with God? “Better yet”, I thought, “I want Gods job!” I mean I’d tried everything else, why not go for the really big bucks?

            So I began the next day job searching and trying to observe things from a different point of view. It was kind of like being on the outside looking in, or in a fish bowl looking out depending on personal taste. At first I didn’t like what I saw. Even in nice areas and neighborhoods I became aware of destruction. I couldn’t help to think of what was once natural wooded areas the landscape was cleared away for human habitation; natural woods, home to countless creatures cut down for shopping centers, parking lots, golf courses, and extravagant mansions. Adding insult to injury was the feeble landscaping to seemingly replace what was there originally.