My sorrow, your sorrow.
In a silent church, a man is praying.
– “God, please help me to overcome this storm.”
– “You look extremely miserable, my son.”
– “Who? Who is talking to me?” the man exclaims.
– “It is me, your God.”
A black man in a black suit with black glasses slowly appears sitting beside him.
– “Am I dreaming?” the man turns his head and asks.
– “No, my son, it is real.”
– “But you do not look like a God?” the man wonders about God’s appearance. “A God must wear a costume like that,” the man points to a statue hung on the ceiling of the church.
– “I exist with anyone who believes in me, my son.” the God explains. “This world changed so fast, and I also must follow it too.”
– “But I just think my God is a Jew, at least he is not…black.”
– “And he absolutely is not white as you know, my son,” God chuckles. “I am just the incarnation of your faith.”
– “Amazing!” the man is surprised. “No one I know has ever seen a real God before.”
– “Just because their faith is not as strong as you at now.”
– “You are right! It is the first time I go to the church for praying.”
– “In the past, there were so many people believing in me,” the God sighs. “Since they were born with their ridiculous theories, people increasingly deny my existence.”
– “Who are they?”
– “Darwin, Newton, Marx, and the others,” the God blames. “Thanks to congregations and churches, their faith keeps me existing.”
– “But scientists help people live better with…the development of science.”
– “That development just develops people’s greed, and then there are only sorrows.”
– “It looks like the story of the forbidden fruit and the tree of knowledge.”
– “Yeah, you got it,” the God applauses. “The knowledge of science keeps people away from me, then all they have are just pains.”
– “You may be right, God!” the man sorrows. “I am in pain. My career has been stuck while my girlfriend left me.”
– “Sorry, my son! my magic is not strong enough to change someone’s mind or your own career.”
– “But you are a powerful God.”
– “Exactly, I used to be,” says God. “In today’s modern life, the decrease of faith weakens my power.”
– “In the past, you can change the whole life of anyone?”
– “What do you mean the whole life?”
– “I mean whatever people can pray to you…to have a wonderful life.”
– “In the past, people’s prayers are so simple,” God explains. “If they ask for food, I bring food to them; if they are thirsty, I help them find water sources.”
– “Is that what you can do?”
– “If natural disasters appear on the earth, I will protect people from them.”
– “But the onward march of science can do it nowadays.”
– “I can also save people from the epidemic.”
– “My God, science today can help people live longer and be healthy.”
– “And it also creates human’s lust.”
– “Whatever, I already had good food, a small house, and I am very healthy,” the man says. “But now I just wish for a better job, and my girlfriend can come back to me.”
– “It turns out that you are not as miserable as I thought.”
– “I am still miserable. My life is still depressed.”
– “Haha,” the God cackles. “Your life is better than millions of people in this world, my son.”
As soon as God’s words finish, God slowly disappears like he never existed.
– “Wait, God,” the man screams.
“Beep beep,” the alarm clock rings. The man wakes up in his cozy room. The clock strikes at 7 am. It is raining. Outside his house, under the torrential rain, workers are rushing home after a night shift, and a homeless guy is embracing his dog to keep the dog dry from the leaking roof.