“Interview with God”

My first introduction to “Interview with God” was while skimming through the pages of a magazine.  I read that the Dali Lama was asked what surprised him most about humanity and this was his response.  “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

Being moved by the profundity of the statement and wanting to know more about the speech, I did some research. To my chagrin I discovered that the quote was part of a poem written by Jim Brown, a Christian sage born in 1923 (Pen Name, James J. Lachard).   I read “Interview with God” and was so moved that I decided to share it in its entirety.  I hope you find the words as inspiring as I did.

 I dreamed I had an interview with God, by James J. Lachard (Jim Brown)

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.
“If you have the time”, I said … God Smiled.
“My time is eternity, … what questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?” …

God answered. “That they get bored with childhood, they rush to grow up and then long to be children again.”
“That they lose their health to make money and then lose their money to restore their health.”
“That by thinking anxiously about the future, that they forget the present, such that they live neither in the present or the future.”
“That they live as if they will never die and die as if they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine and we were silent for a while. And then I asked. “As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons that you want your children to learn?”

God replied with a smile. “To learn they cannot make anyone love them, what they can do is let themselves be loved.”
“To learn that it is not good to compare themselves to other.”
“To learn that a rich person is not the one who has the most, but the one who needs the least.”
“To learn that it only takes a few seconds to open profound wounds in persons we love and it takes many years to heal them.”
“To learn to forgive by practicing forgiveness.”
“To learn that there are persons who love them dearly, but simply do not know how to express or show their feelings.”
“To learn that two people can look at the same thing and see it differently.”
‘To learn that it is not always enough that they be forgiven by others, but that they must forgive themselves.”
“And to learn that I am here … ALWAYS.”